Unpleaded issue

Lombard North Central plc v Automobile World (UK) Ltd [2010] EWCA Civ 20, 26 January; NLJ 5 February p178

The defendant had bought a rare and expensive car with hire-purchase finance provided by the claimant. The car was a Mercedes Benz S600 Pullman (the ‘car’). This was the kind of car which a country’s head of state might order, to an almost bespoke specification. In fact such cars were only manufactured by Mercedes Benz for a few years between 2000 and 2003 (although earlier version of the Pullman had been manufactured for a number of decades, and there was evidence of what was advertised to have been chairman Mao’s 1973 Pullman being available on the market in about 2008 for £125,000 or near offer).