CIVIL SKILLS

DRAFTING PRACTICE ASSESSMENT

SAMPLE

IN THE CIVIL NATIONAL BUSINESS CENTRE Claim No. 23 2345

BETWEEN:

PLUMBIT LIMITED Claimant

and

THE MARKET FORCE LIMITED Defendant

DEFENCE AND COUNTERCLAIM

DEFENCE

1. Paragraph 1 of the Particulars of Claim is admitted. At all material times the

Claimant acted in the course of its business.

2. As regards Paragraph 2 of the Particulars of Claim:

a) The Defendant denies that the documents referred to in Paragraph 2 of the

Particulars of Claim constituted the entire agreement between the parties.

b) On 3 July 2022, at the Defendant’s premises at 65 - 67 Arndale Street,

Manchester, Mr Albert Thompson (on behalf of the Claimant) and Mr Jeffrey
854703667.docx 1
©The University of Law
 Holte (on behalf of the Defendant) orally agreed that, in the event of a
contract for the re-fitting and decorating (the work) referred to in Paragraph 2
of the Particulars of Claim being concluded between the parties:
(i) the ceilings of the toilet suites referred to in Paragraph 2 would be coated
in rough-finish coats of Sandtex; and

(ii) the work to be done by the Claimant under the agreement would be
completed by 30 November 2022.

c) Accordingly, the contract was partly oral and partly written, the oral terms
being those set out in the previous sub-paragraph.

d) Further, by virtue of Section 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act

1982, it was an implied term of the contract that the Claimant would carry out
the work with reasonable care and skill.

e) Save as above Paragraph 2 of the Particulars of Claim is admitted.

3. Paragraph 3 of the Particulars of Claim is admitted.

4. As regards Paragraph 4 of the Particulars of Claim:

a) The Defendant admits that the Claimant purported to complete the agreed
work on 21 December 2022.

b) The Defendant denies the Claimant in fact completed the work on that date
in accordance with the agreement:

(i) The agreement stipulated for completion by 30 November 2022.

(ii) The Claimant, by that date, had not, and to date has not finished, in
rough-finished coats of Sandtex, the ceilings of the 2 toilet suites on the
upper floor of the building.

854703667.docx 2©The University of Law

 (iii) The Claimant failed to plumb the 2 toilets on the upper floor of the
building with reasonable care and skill.

c) The Defendant refers to the set-off pleaded hereunder, by reason of which

the Defendant denies that the sum of £18,000, alternatively a part of that
sum equal to the amount set off as above, became due and payable on or
after 19 February 2023 or at any time.

d) Save as above Paragraph 4 of the Particulars of Claim is admitted.

5. As regards Paragraph 5 of the Particulars of Claim:

a) The Defendant admits that it has not paid any sum to the Claimant as alleged
in Paragraph 5 of the Particulars of Claim.

b) The rest of Paragraph 5 is denied. In particular the Defendant denies that the
sum of £18,000, alternatively a part of that sum equal to the amount set off
as above, is due and payable, or that interest has accrued or continues to
accrue thereon. Paragraph 4(c) above is repeated.

6. The Defendant sets off the amount due by the Claimant to the Defendant, as
pleaded in the Defendant’s counterclaim hereunder, in extinction, alternatively
in reduction of the Claimant’s claim.

COUNTERCLAIM

7. Paragraphs 1, 2 and 4(a) - (c) of the Defence are repeated.

8. On 4 July 2022, on the occasion referred to in Paragraph 2(b) above, Mr Holte

informed Mr Thompson of the following facts and matters:

a) The Defendant ran an internet-based marketing consultancy business, and it

was to start carrying on that business in Manchester, training customers in
internet-based marketing, at the Arndale Street premises, on 4 December
2022.
854703667.docx 3©The University of Law
 b) The Defendant was to hold an important Open Day on 3 December 2022, it
being obvious that this was an occasion on which the Defendant would seek
to introduce and to advertise itself to customers and potential customers.

c) It was vital for the Defendant’s marketing strategy that the building, as the
Defendant’s place of business, should be complete, and meticulously clean
before 3 December 2022. This was so that the Defendant, at the Open Day,
would make a good impression upon customers and potential customers, as
an efficient, well organised company, well able to market itself and thus to
train others to market themselves, and offering training in a properly
functioning, well-maintained environment.

9. Accordingly it was within the contemplation of the parties, at all material times,
that, in the event of work on the building being incomplete by 3 December 2022,
the Defendant would make a bad impression upon customers and potential
customers as an inefficient, poorly organised company, unable to market itself
and thus train others to market themselves and unable to offer training in a
properly functioning, well-maintained environment; by reason of which the
Defendant would lose customers and its business reputation would suffer.

10. The Claimant breached the express oral terms and implied term set out in
Paragraph 2 of the Defence.

PARTICULARS OF BREACH

a) The Claimant failed to coat, in rough-finish coats of Sandtex, the ceilings of

the 2 toilet suites on the upper floor of the building.

b) The Claimant failed to plumb the 2 toilets on the upper floor of the building
with reasonable skill and care, in that:

(i) the joints in the waste pipes were fitted with glue rather than with rubber
seals;

854703667.docx 4©The University of Law

 (ii) too much glue was used to fit the joints in the waste pipes;

(iii) the waste pipes were laid at too shallow an angle;

(iv) the excess glue set inside the pipes, trapping whatever was being flushed,
and the shallow angle at which the waste pipes had been laid tended to
prevent flushed water from clearing the blockage.

c) The Claimant failed to complete the work on or before 30 November 2022. It

did not purport to complete the work until 21 December 2022.

11. By reason of the said breaches the Defendant suffered loss and damage.

PARTICULARS OF DAMAGE

a) The cost, including VAT, of hiring a decorator to coat the ceilings of the 2
toilet suites on the upper floor of the building in rough-finish coats of Sandtex.
£350

b) The cost, including VAT, of hiring a plumber to re-plumb the 2 toilet suites on
the upper floor of the building, the plumber being the cheaper of two
plumbers approached by the Defendant.
£1,650

c) The loss of a training contract with Summit Activity Centres. “Summit”

refused to conclude the contract because of the work on the building being
incomplete until 21 December 2022. The training contract would have given
the Defendant £750 per trainee for the training of 10 employees.
£7,500

d) Financial loss consequent upon a loss of business reputation. This has been
caused by the fact that, on the Open Day on 3 December 2022, and until 21
December 2022, the incomplete state of the building meant that customers
and potential customers received a poor impression of the Defendant. The

854703667.docx 5©The University of Law

 Defendant will rely upon the fact that the opening 6 months’ turnover of the
business of its Arndale Street branch was 15% less than the projected
turnover for that period, the projection having been derived from the turnover
for the first 6 months of the Defendant’s business in Liverpool, this shortfall of
turnover amounting to (solicitors to complete) in the case of the Manchester
premises.

12. The Defendant will seek interest on those damages, under Section 69 of the
County Courts Act 1984, at such rates, and for such periods, as the court thinks
fit.

AND the Defendant counterclaims:

(1) Damages;
(2) Interest as above.
ADAM CRUMBLE
DATED

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this Defence and Counterclaim are
true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against
anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified
by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

I am duly authorised by the Defendant to sign this Statement.

Full Name

Signed
Position or office held1

1
If signing on behalf of a company or solicitors’ firm
854703667.docx 6©The University of Law
[Name of Defendant’s solicitor’s firm]2

Dated

Hill & Redmond

1078, Chester Road,
Stretford,
Manchester M32 OHF

Solicitors for the Defendant

To the Court

To the Claimant

2
If signing on behalf of a solicitors’ firm
854703667.docx 7©The University of Law
 IN THE CIVIL NATIONAL BUSINESS CENTRE

Claim No. 23 2345

BETWEEN:

PLUMBIT LIMITED
Claimant

and

THE MARKET FORCE LIMITED

Defendant

DEFENCE AND COUNTERCLAIM

Hill & Redmond

1078, Chester Road,
Stretford,
Manchester M32 OHF

Solicitors for the Defendant

854703667.docx 8©The University of Law