Cayman Islands Grand Court Reviews Law Governing Applications to Strike Out

Alexander Davies, HSM litigation attorney, applied on behalf of a defendant to proceedings, Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited, to strike out the plaintiff’s claim for want of prosecution. The claim for damages flows from a personal injury sustained when the plaintiff tripped on stairs on her employer’s premises in 2014. Proceedings were protectively issued in 2017. Following a protracted history, including an interlocutory appeal to the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal heard in 2019, and several changes of attorneys by the plaintiff, the case had ground to a halt. The key issue had become the plaintiff’s claimed permanent disability due to chronic pain, and whether this was caused by the index injury. The defendant’s nominated expert in chronic pain, whom had examined the Plaintiff in 2018, was by January 2024 no longer available to give evidence due to having retired.

Giving judgment on the application, Hon. Asif J. K.C. found that the plaintiff had caused or contributed to inordinate and inexcusable delay in bringing her claim, which had resulted in genuine prejudice to the defendant, and the test for striking out the claim was therefore satisfied. Rather than striking out the entire claim, however, the learned Judge instead restricted the scope of the claim, debarring the plaintiff from pursuing a claim based upon the reported chronic pain and associated disability.

The judgment on 10 July 2024 provides a useful summary and review of the law pertaining to applications to strike out proceedings for want of prosecution in the Cayman Islands.