Court of Appeal rules motor finance commission cases can be dealt with using omnibus claim forms

The Court of Appeal (CoA) in Angel & Ors v Black Horse Ltd [2025] EWHC 490 (KB) has overturned the case management decision taken at first instance that the eight claim forms covering 5,800 claimants could not be dealt with using omnibus claim forms but must be severed.

Mr Justice Ritchie found that although the court at first instance had been bound to apply the ‘exclusionary tests’ (the ‘real progress’, ‘real significance’ and ‘must bind’ tests) set out in the Divisional Court’s decision in Abbott v Ministry of Defence [2023] 1 WLR 4002 (Abbott), this decision had subsequently been overturned in Morris & ors v Williams & Co Solicitors [2024] EWCA Civ 376.

Therefore, the test for severance of omnibus claims does not rely solely on the exclusionary factors as set out in Abbott, as these are merely some of the many factors which must be considered when determining what ‘convenient disposal’ entails for the purposes of Civil Procedure Rule 7.3 (“A claimant may use a single claim form to start all claims which can be conveniently disposed of in the same proceedings.“).