Costs & Damages

Action involving fracture of pipe under ground in an area which was being cleared for a carpark. Damages agreed in a joint minute. The pursuers' second plea in law stated that there had been a failure to take reasonable care on the part of the defenders. The defenders had little experience of prope......

Anis Waiz, solicitor at Curtis Law Solicitors, continues his critical review of current case law. In this case, the court considered a novel issue regarding interest and the court's power to depart from approved costs budgets. This decision followed two judgments dealing with issues of liabilit......

Issue-based Costs Order. Where a guarantor had succeeded in setting aside a guarantee given to a bank but had fought the case on numerous distinct bases on which he had lost, one of which was an improper allegation of fraud, a judge had been entitled to depart from the normal rule that the unsucc......

Proof:- In this action the pursuer sought damages from the defender, from whom he and his partner rented a property from, after a glass panelled door there swung on to his hand as he entered the living room causing him to be injured. The pursuer based his claim on a breach of the condition implie......

Appeal against an order for costs where the claimant had discontinued proceedings on the ground that the defendant's failure to respond to pre-action correspondence justified departing from the default rule in CPR 38.6(1). Held: The example of disapplying CPR 38.6(1) where there is non-compl......

A discontinuing claimant failed to rebut the presumption under CPR, r.38.6 that it should be liable for the defendant's costs. The Applicant (A) brought proceedings against the Respondent (R) for defamation in relation to a letter which questioned one of A's veterinary products. Followin......

In a case where it had been found that the successful party had been dishonest, the fact that the paying party had not sought an order from the judge reflecting that misconduct did not preclude the paying party, when it came to the assessment of costs, from referring to the finding of dishonesty w......

A judge had been correct to rule that a claim issued in 2004, by a claimant who had suffered the symptoms of hand and arm vibration syndrome since 1992, was time barred as the claimant had actual knowledge of the disease in 2003 and constructive knowledge from at least 1997 and probably from 1992. ......

It would not be unjust to award the offeror all of its costs because had the offer been accepted no further costs would have been incurred thereafter. The fact that an offer had been withdrawn did not necessarily deprive the offer of effect on the question of costs. In such a case the defendant sho......

A conditional fee agreement that provided for a 100 per cent success fee and payment of a bonus in the event that the client recovered damages in excess of a certain amount was in clear breach of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 s.58(4). A subsequent deed of variation was ineffective to recti......

Insurance Company Personally Liable for Costs of Claim: The Court of Appeal held that, as the appellant insurance company had funded, controlled and directed the defence of a personal injury claim in its own interest, even where that interest did not coincide with the interest of its insured, it wa......

Appeal against an order for security for the claimant's costs in relation to the defendant's counterclaim for damages for professional negligence in a dispute as to outstanding fees. Held: Whether it is just to make an order for security is determined according to the circumstances of t......

Reclaiming Motion:- On 14 March 2005, the pursuer went for a walk with her golden retriever near Dundee. The defender was also in the field with his black Labrador. Both dogs were off the lead and were running around together, however, the pursuer, on calling for her own dog, both dogs ran toward......

Debate - Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988:- In this action the pursuers sought interedict and damages in respect of the playing of music at Kwik-Fit service centres all over the country, that was said, constituted the "playing" or "performance" of such works "in public" for the purposes of s......

The Claimant had appealed the allocation of his claim to the small claims track. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and came to consider the costs of the appeal. The court held that it would have awarded the Defendant his costs of the appeal however this was prevented by the wording of the CP......

Non-party costs order: It was appropriate to make a non-party costs order against an individual and to join him in proceedings where he had exercised, through companies, substantial control over the course of those proceedings and had a personal interest in the outcome. ......

The judge had been right to join an individual to the proceedings and make him jointly and severally liable for the costs of the successful defendants where he had controlled the proceedings brought by the claimant company, funded those proceedings and would have benefited from them if they had be......

We are pleased to welcome again Anis Waiz, Solicitor at Curtis Law Solicitors, as he continues his critical review of current case law. This case raised the important issue of the costs consequence when a party declines to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Practitioners will of......

An offer which did not specify a period of not less than 21 days, or any period, in compliance with CPR r.36.2(2)(c) was not a Part 36 offerIt was held that an offer did not specify a period of not less than 21 days, or any period, in compliance with CPR r.36(2)(2)(c) was not a Part 36 offer. It wa......

Requirement contained in a notice of proposed allocation under CPR r.26.3 to file Directions Questionnaire did not also amount to a requirement to serve a costs budget. The Claimant (C) appealed against the District Judge's decision that a notice of proposed allocation to the multi-track req......

Each party to pay own costs where no winner and no loser. An order that each party was responsible for its own costs in respect of an action for alleged breaches of a restrictive covenant was not manifestly unjust particularly where the order fairly reflected that there was no winner and no loser.......

Misusing an order for costs in an attempt to discipline the Director of Public Prosecutions. Peter Barry Goodison, the driver of a bus, was prosecuted for an offence of causing death by careless driving. Mr Goodison was tried at the Crown Court at Sheffield and was acquitted. After the acquittal......