Specific performance action dismissed for where no explanation for years of inactivity

The High Court dismissed proceedings brought by a company seeking specific performance of a property sale contract, after three of the defendant purchasers applied for the case to be struck out due to extensive and unjustifiable delays. The court found that there had been inordinate and inexcusable delay in prosecuting the action, particularly between 2017 and 2024, and that no satisfactory explanation was provided for this period of inactivity. The judge clarified that under recent Supreme Court authority, significant procedural inactivity of two years or more can justify dismissal of proceedings even without proof of specific prejudice to the defendants. Here, the combination of long pre-commencement and post-discovery delays, lack of credible reasons for the delay, and the likelihood that memories and evidence had faded, led to the conclusion that the balance of justice required dismissal of the action. The defendants, who had also lent a substantial sum to the plaintiff which remained unpaid, offered to discontinue separate summary proceedings for the loan if the main action was dismissed.