Setting Aside Permission to Appeal

Hunt v Peasgood (TLR 20 October CA)

CPR rule 52.9 provides that an appeal court may set aside permission to appeal in whole or in part but that the court will only exercise this power where there is a compelling reason for doing so. In considering whether there was such a reason the guidance given in the earlier cases of The Iran Nabuvat ([1990] 1 WLR 115) and Smith v Cosworth Casting Processes Ltd ([1997] 4 All ER 840) remained apposite, namely that the grant of permission was, in ordinary circumstances, conclusive and would only be set aside where cogent reasons demonstrated that the proposed appeal had no prospect of success. A request for permission to appeal did not require an analysis of the grounds of the proposed appeal to ascertain whether it would succeed; the court had only to decide whether there was a real prospect of success. If so permission would be granted; if not, it would be refused.