Appeal judges throw out case after appellant fails to turn up

The master of the rolls has dismissed an appeal from a political campaign group – after it failed to show up for its day in court.

In Leave.EU Group Ltd & Anor v The Information Commissioner Sir Geoffrey Vos ruled that the appellant was aware of the date of the hearing but made no application to adjourn.

The group had been given permission to appeal two decisions of the Information Commissioner and given a one-day hearing on 1 February at the Royal Courts of Justice.

But despite submitting what the judge described as ‘high quality’ skeleton arguments, nobody from the appellant attended – including any solicitor or counsel – to make oral arguments.

Vos said that hearing only from the respondent was not sufficient and that the court had to take Leave.EU’s non-attendance as an indication that it did not wish to proceed with its appeal. 

‘The time of the Court of Appeal is at a premium and we have to consider the interests of other court users,’ said Vos. ‘Parties cannot simply fail to show up for a hearing and then submit, after the event, that they should have been allowed an adjournment. There must be finality in litigation and this case is no exception to that principle.’

The court heard that Leave.EU had been represented by London firm Kingsley Napley until 26 January which it applied to come off the record. Submissions were then sought from the sole director of Leave.EU, Jacobus Coetzee, who was asked who would be appearing for the group in court.

The appeal was a challenge to the Upper Tribunal’s decision to uphold a ruling of the First Tier Tribunal from 2020. The first tier had upheld two decisions of the Information Commissioner to fine Leave.EU £45,000 over alleged data breaches.

Vos said that while Coetzee had never responded to any emails sent by the court, he was aware of the Court of Appeal hearing. He dismissed the appeal and was supported in his decision by Lord Justice Lewison.