Misnumbering of court bundles is ‘only too common’, an unimpressed Court of Appeal judge told litigants who tried to blame their solicitor for landing them in prison.
Belinda and Gerald Weaver were found in contempt for breaching an injunction obtained by Connexus Homes Ltd, which required the couple to permit access to their property. They were represented at their committal hearing by a practitioner identified as ‘Mr Kemp’, whom they claimed had apologised to the court for some misnumbering in the bundles. The couple argued that this misnumbering hampered the cross-examination of a key witness.
Lady Justice King ruled that the courts are no strangers to misnumbering where there are ‘voluminous papers’. ‘Both counsel and the court are accustomed to dealing with any problems which arise without any prejudice to the case,’ the judge added. She did, however, allow the couple’s appeal against the finding of contempt and their sentence of imprisonment on the basis that the injunction was insufficiently clear.
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