In interpreting CPR r.3.9 and in determining where the interests of the administration of justice lay, in any case where an extension of time for appealing in excess of two months had been sought the court would bear in mind that it was a fundamental principle of common law that the outcome of litigation should be final, that the law exceptionally allowed appeals out of time and still more exceptionally it allowed judgments to be attacked on the ground of fraud but those were exceptions to a general rule of high public importance and reserved for rare and limited cases where the facts justifying the exception could be strictly proved.

[2005] EWCA Civ 261