Football Dataco Ltd & Ors v Smoot Enterprises Ltd & Anor (Rev 1) [2011] EWHC 973 (Ch) 14/04/2011

Default judgment was not, in any circumstances, a judgment on the merits. The provisions in r. 12.4(2) and r. 12.10 requiring a Part 23 application were triggered not by anything connected to the legal foundation for the cause of action but by aspects either of the relief sought or of the manner in which the Defendants had been served out of the jurisdiction. The requirement in r 12.11(1) that it must appear to the court that the claimant was entitled to judgment had to be interpreted in the light of the circumstances in which an application was required. Rule 12.11(1) did not require the court to second-guess an assertion in the particulars of claim that, as a matter of law, the facts alleged provided the claimant with a cause of action.