GEORGINA MURDOCH V AIRTOURS HOLIDAYS LITD

GEORGINA MURDOCH, residing at 4 Newtonhill Road, Newtonhill, Stonehaven, Kincardineshire AB39 3TU

AIRTOURS HOLIDAYS LIMITED, a company incorporated under the Companies Acts and having its registered office at Parkway One, Parkway Business Centre, 300 Princess Road, Manchester M14 7QU

The Sheriff Principal, having resumed consideration of the cause, Allows the appeal; Allows the appellant’s Minute of Amendment, number 23 of process, to be received; Ordains the respondents, if so advised, to lodge Answers thereto within 21 days; Remits the cause to the sheriff to appoint a date for a hearing under Rule 18.3 of the Ordinary Cause Rules 1993 and thereafter to proceed as accords; Finds the respondent liable in the expenses of the appeal and Remits an account thereof when lodged to the Auditor of Court to tax and to report.

[1] In his introduction to the Report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review (2009), Lord Gill described the Scottish civil courts as providing “a service to the public that is slow, inefficient and expensive”. If a member of the public sought an example in support of that description, he would need to look no further than the present proceedings.

[3] There is a rule – well known to litigators – that once a case goes off the rails, it is very difficult to get it back on. But the extra ingredient in this case is that a decision by a judge of the Inner House of the Court of Session to enforce the rules in the face of the incompetence of the appellant’s solicitors made matters worse rather than better. That is not meant as a criticism of that decision; on the contrary. But it is a further indication of the harsh consequences which can potentially arise through the failings of professional advisers.