M&S, WHERE'S ME TROUSERS?

The things I do for you!

I reported on 7 October 2016 (see under consumer rights) about the unstitching of the fly of the trousers I had bought from Marks & Spencer. I exercised my right to a repair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 on 7 October 2016. Where a repair (or the alternative right to a replacement) has been asked for, the trader must comply within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the customer. Whether or not the trader has complied will depend on the nature of the goods and the purpose for which they were being acquired. The trader must bear any necessary costs involved including the cost of labour, materials and postage.

So what was a reasonable time to stitch up a fly? 14 days, I would say and certainly no more than 28. Those 28 days were up last Friday. So that very day, I sent my friends at M&S customer services a little e mail. In the matter of the trousers, I said this- 

But I am back in The Case of the Opening Fly. I returned to your Kew store on 7 October 2016 a pair of trousers, the fly of which had become unstitched and exercised my statutory right to a repair. The trousers were left with you to enable that repair to be effected. Given that I had not asked for a house to be built or the trousers to be enlarged to accommodate a 60 inch girth or a 40 inch pair of legs, I would have expected to hear by now that they were ready. Where are they, please? They should now be returned to me in a repaired state at the address I can notify. 

And they said

Hi Stephen

I'm sorry it's taken so long for an update about your pair of trousers.

I've spoken to the Duty Manager at Kew, she told me the trousers have been passed on to the Alteration Specialist - they should hear from them soon.

She isn't in today, but I've passed your information on to one of my colleagues who will call the Kew store tomorrow and speak to her about where we're up to with the trousers.

Thanks for getting in touch today, we'll be in touch soon.

Kind regards

Retail Customer Services
Your M&S Customer Service

And then after a further prod from me and kind customer services sentiments abut my feeling well, I got a call from the store this afternoon  The trousers will be ready this Saturday which takes us to five weeks. M&S has promised to send the trousers to me to save me having to incur expense in returning to the store.

In certain circumstances, the trader may be able to refuse a repair (or replacement) where this would be impossible or disproportionate. For more , see Breaking Law at chapter 39.

A PARTY FOR SURVEYORS

They call it the Party Wall etc Act 1996 - you could have done without the etc, Your Majesty and Parliament - and it comes into play when you are intending to do something partywallish. That, for example, might be erecting a new wall at the boundary of your property and that of your neighbour, cutting into a party wall or making a party wall taller, shorter or deeper. There's helpful guidance on the legislation at gov.uk 

If there is one thing that might put you off the idea of party wall work it's this. The moment you whisper something about it to your cat, signals will be picked up by an array of party wall surveyors who will communicate with you and plead with you to instruct them to act for you (and possibly your neighbour) in the matter.

Party wall surveyors were involved in a case which was before the Court of Appeal last Thursday. Gray v Elite Town Management Ltd it was called. One of the important issues which had to be decided was what was meant by part of the Act which says that the person carrying out the work must not cause unnecessary inconvenience to the adjoining property owner or occupier. The appeal court ruled that this related to the manner in which the works were carried out and not the actual scheme. The scheme did not have to be the one which caused the minimum of inconvenience and so there was no obligation on the part of the party wall surveyors to authorise the scheme which caused the minimum inconvenience.

CLOSED FOR LUNCH, CLOSED FOR EVER

Firm dates have now been given for the latest tranche of closures of county court hearing centres along with the district registries which run out of four of them and deal with High Court work. Here they are and the dates they pack up-

Halifax                        28 November 2016

Tunbridge Wells          09 December 2016

Scunthorpe                  13 January 2017

Hartlepool                   30 January 2017

Reigate                        31 March 2017

Justice will be available at other centres though court users may have a bit more travelling than they expected in their quest for it. And if you want to put in a bid for one of the buildings, I am sure Her Majesty's Court and Tribunal Service will be glad to hear from you. Perhaps you could open up a fish and chip shop and call it The Court Plaice. 

Sorry.

I WILL, I WILL

"It's time to make a will. They'll be trouble when you kick the bucket if you don't."

"I'm washing my hair. I've got to pick up the leaves, I mean I've got to get ready for the American Presidential election results, I mean my throat is so sore, I can't think straight..."

I know, I know. A bit like putting off an appointment with the dentist. The spur this month to getting on with it is the Will Aid Scheme. Supporting solicitors will prepare you a will in return for a donation to charity. The recommended donation is £95 per will or £150 for mirror wills- you can't see your face in them but one will mirrors the other where say spouses or partners are making them. Go to willaid.org.uk

Without a will, the intestacy laws kick in. You might not like them. You are survived by a spouse or civil partner but no children? The spouse or civil partner scoop the lot. You are survived by a spouse or civil partner plus children (the big and ugly ones included)? The first £250,000 goes to the surviving spouse or partner and the rest is divided as to one-half to them and the other half to the children. And so on. If the family home is jointly held as 'joint tenants' then the surviving joint owner automatically gets the deceased's share on top of the intestacy entitlement though that is a scenario which can be easily changed.

And if you want to leave someone out of the will who had expectations, then you can put a statement with the will saying why which would be considered by the court of they made a challenge to the will while you looked on from upstairs.

A DIY will? It's too easy to mess it up. Not recommended.

For more, go to Breaking Law at chapter 32.

And cancel the hair wash.

NOT SO QUICKIE DIVORCES

Proceedings for divorce, nullity, civil partnership dissolution and separation between spouses and civil partners now have to be started in one of 11 centres in England and Wales. Where they are undefended (as with the vast majority of cases) they will usually be dealt with by legal advisers (whose functions used to be confined to magistrates' courts) and not by district judges at local family court hearing centres. Financial applications are heard elsewhere.

It was hoped that this centralisation for dealing with matrimonial business would hurry it up. Alas, reports point to cases taking the same time to conclude as before the changes came in to force and some anecdotal evidence suggests that they are taking considerably longer with certain of the centres.

There are ways of accelerating the process apart from ringing round the centres and coming to a conclusion about which one is the fastest to use. Not too many of you though, or it will soon become the slowest. And there are other ways: among them, arranging service of the papers on the other party yourself and in appropriate cases (where say you want to ensure an expected child is born legitimate  following a remarriage), applying for the decree to be expedited. There's more in  Breaking Law at chapter 48.  

GAMBLING IN COURT

Forget Brexit and the Royal Prerogative. There was better entertainment on offer at the Strand's Law Courts yesterday with the Court of Appeal giving judgment in a gambling case with £7.7m at stake. If you had a fiver on the gambler winning then you will have lost.

At Crockfords Club, the gambler had played Punto Banco, a game of pure chance, which they tell me is more sophisticated that my favourite Snap and is a variant of Baccarat. What he did was to engage in "edge-sorting" which involved exporting design irregularities on the backs of playing cards. Don't rush to the full judgment to find out how you can do it because the appeal court ruled that his method of play amounted to cheating. It was implied he would not cheat and, because he had cheated, Crockfords did not have to pay him out the £7.7 he thought he had won. Let's hope he hadn't spent too much on celebratory champagne. He hadn't been dishonest and he hadn't deceived but, in law, he had still cheated as his actions had a dramatic effect on the odds in the game.

This is the latest in a line of cases in which casinos have won in court. Last year a man who had gambled away £2m on the roulette tables at London's Ritz Hotel casino lost in court. His cheque signed in return for the gaming chips had bounced and the casino sued him for the money. His defence included that argument that the casino owed him a duty of care to take reasonable steps to see he was not harmed or exploited by the provision of gambling facilities. The trial judge rejected the gambler's evidence that he was suffering any gambling disorder at the relevant time and there was no evidence that his gambling was outside his control.

But this defence could possibly succeed where there was evidence that the gambling was wholly outside the gambler's control though they would have to overcome any suggestion that they would have lost the money somewhere else anyway. "You shouldn't have given me credit" is also a line which might succeed in the case of a pathological borrower against their lender who was fully aware of their financial weakness (see Breaking Law on Protection From Your Creditors at chapter 30).

NEW CIVIL APPEAL FORMS

In the most unlikely event that you reckon the judge got it wrong, you can have a go at appealing their decision although you will almost always need permission from the court to do this. There have been recent changes on the identity of the  higher court to which an appeal now goes and from where you try and get that magic permission (see my posts on appeals in civil cases and appeals in family cases). Generally, the appeal will be destined for one judicial step up the judicial ladder at a time.

Procedural changes like this inevitably mean this blasted thing. New court forms? And so it is. In family cases, the notice of appeal form FP161 along will certain other forms changed on 3 October 2016 and, as from yesterday, certain amended civil forms were introduced including the notice of appeal in form N161 and the guidance notes to go with it in form N161A. The existing forms on hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk will be updated within the next few days.