AGS -v- Wandle Housing Association Limited and another

Administrative CourtHigh CourtKing's Bench DivisionAnonymity Order

Claim number: AC-2024-LON-004244

In the High Court of Justice
King’s Bench Division
Administrative Court

5 February 2025

Before:

The Hon Mr Justice Morris

Between:

The King on the application of
AGS

-v-

Wandle Housing Association Limited

London Borough of Lambeth

Order

Notification of Judge’s Decision (CPR 54.11, 54.12)

Following consideration of the documents filed by the Claimant, each Defendant’s Acknowledgement of Service and Summary Grounds of Defence and the Claimant’s Reply

ORDER BY THE HON. MR JUSTICE MORRIS

  1. Permission to apply for judicial review: Permission is granted on all grounds.
  2. Expedition: The hearing of the claim is expedited. The hearing is to be listed as soon as the Court can reasonably accommodate the hearing, allowing for completion of the steps set out in paragraph 4 below.
  3. Anonymity:
    (a) The Claimant is granted anonymity and shall be referred to in these proceedings as ‘AGS’. Pursuant to CPR 39.2 there shall be no publication of the name or address of the Claimant or any particulars of the case likely to lead to the identification of the Claimant without the leave of the court.
    (b) Pursuant to CPR Rules 5.4C and 5.4D a person who is not a party to the proceedings may not obtain a copy of a statement of case, judgment or order from the Court records unless the statement of case, judgment or order has been anonymised in accordance with the direction above.
    (c) The Court file shall be clearly noted with the words “An anonymity order was made in this case this 5th day of February 2025 and any application by a non-party to inspect or obtain a copy document from this file must be dealt with in accordance with the terms of that Order.
    (d) Any person has liberty on 3 days’ written notice to the parties to apply to vary or discharge the anonymity order set out in sub-paragraphs (a) to (c) above.
  4. Case Management Directions:
    (a) Each Defendant must, within 21 days of the date of service of this Order, file and serve (i) Detailed Grounds for contesting the claim or supporting it on additional grounds and (ii) any written evidence to be relied on.
    (b) Each Defendant may comply with sub-paragraph (a)(i) above by filing and serving a document which states that its Summary Grounds are to stand as the Detailed Grounds required by CPR 54.14.
    (c) Any application by the Claimant to serve evidence in reply must be filed and served, together with a copy of that evidence, within 14 days of the latest date on which a Defendant serves evidence pursuant to (a) above.
    (d) The parties must agree the contents of the hearing bundle. An electronic version of the bundle must be prepared and lodged, in accordance with the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide Chapter 21 and the Guidance on the Administrative Court website, not less than 28 days before the date of the substantive hearing. The parties must, if requested by the Court, lodge 2 hard copy versions of the hearing bundle.
    (e) The Claimant must file and serve a Skeleton Argument (maximum 25 pages), complying with CPR 54 PD para. 15 and the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide paras 20.1 to 20.3, not less than 21 days before the date of the substantive hearing.
    (f) Each Defendant must file and serve a Skeleton Argument (maximum 25 pages), complying with CPR 54 PD para. 15 and the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide paras 20.1 to 20.3, not less than 14 days before the date of the substantive hearing.
    (g) The parties must agree the contents of a bundle containing the authorities to be referred to at the hearing. An electronic version of the bundle must be prepared in accordance with the Guidance on the Administrative Court website. The parties must, if requested by the Court, prepare a hard-copy version of the authorities bundle. The electronic version of the bundle and if requested, the hard copy version of the bundle, must be lodged with the Court not less than 7 days before the date of the substantive hearing.
    (h) The time estimate for the substantive hearing is 1 day. If any party considers that this time estimate should be varied, they must inform the court as soon as possible.

Observations and reasons

1) The grounds of claim are arguable.
(2) Anonymity is justified for the reasons set out in section 9 of the Claim Form.
(3) In the light of the Claimant’s current accommodation situation and in particular the imminent expiry of her entitlement to dual housing benefit, a degree of expedition is warranted.