Where a cause of action is deleted from a writ by amendment, time runs afresh for limitation purposes if the plaintiff later seeks to reintroduce it; the deletion is analogous to discontinuance. However, the reintroduced cause of action qualifies as a 'new' cause of action under O 21 r 5(5), permitting amendment after the limitation period if it arises out of the same or substantially the same facts as an existing cause of action. The court does not start from a premise that amendments reintroducing abandoned causes of action should ordinarily be refused. A defendant claiming irremediable prejudice from loss of a cross-claim against a third party must show that the prejudice was caused by the plaintiff's delay, not by the defendant's own failure to investigate when the opportunity existed.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 7 later cases that cite this judgment.