The claimant appealed refusal of her application that the defendant be disallowed any of his costs. As a serving officer she had sought damages for negligence having been injured falling from her police horse. The defendant had rejected three attempts to settle the action, and eventually the had lost her action and been ordered to pay costs of andpound;50,000.
Held: The court did have a discretion to make a costs order partly in favour of an unsuccessful claimant, but that discretion should be exercised only where the defendant being a public body had acted so unreasonably that it should be so deprived. The idea of ADR in this context included any method of resolving the dispute otherwise than at trial. It was reasonable that a public body should make a decision to resist all unmeritorious claims in order to discourage other such claims. ‘Defendants routinely facing unfunded claims were entitled to take a stand and contest them and the court should be low to characterise such conduct as unreasonable.’
Judges:
Ward LJ, Dyson LJ
Citations:
Times 28-Oct-2005, [2005] EWCA Civ 1312
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust etc CA 11-May-2004
The court considered the effect on costs orders of a refusal to take part in alternate dispute resolution procedures. The defendant Trust had refused to take the dispute to a mediation. In neither case had the court ordered or recommended ADR.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Costs
Updated: 04 July 2022; Ref: scu.231646