Description
Appeal against strike-out raising the issue of whether an unsuccessful claimant may recover costs against a third party who benefits from the final judgment on the ground of unjust enrichment. The respondent sought summary judgment.
Appeal allowed. Application for summary judgment refused. Held: The courts do not normally award parties the costs of issues on which they have lost against counterparties who have taken no part in the proceedings. However, whether the benefit conferred on the third party was incidental and therefore an exception to unjust enrichment was a distinct and undecided point of law better decided against actual rather than assumed facts.
Sir Stanley Burnton, dissenting, found the claim sought to circumvent the costs jurisdiction of the court and lacked a justiciable basis.
