The tenant of a mine was liable to pay the landlord’s costs of the grant of the lease. The tenant’s liability was based on custom, which required the tenant to pay the costs of drawing, settling and completing the lease. The tenant asked for an assessment of the bill of costs. The bill included a disbursement relating to fees paid to a mining expert.
Held: The court’s jurisdiction over solicitors as it officers is compensatory and not punitive, it retains a disciplinary slant to act ‘to enforce honourable conduct on the part of the Court’s own officers.’
Cozens-Hardy J said: ‘Now, it is well settled that the bill to be taxed is the bill between the solicitor and his own client; and that the third party can only tax it on the condition of paying what is due to the solicitor from his own client, which may be more than the client, if he had paid it, could have recovered over from the third party.’
Judges:
Cozens-Hardy J
Citations:
[1901] 1 Ch 239
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
See aslo – Re Gray v Coles 1891
North J said that there should be a special retainer to defend a suit as well as to institute it. There is power for the court to make an order setting aside an appearance the entry of which has not been authorised.
the court, having a . .
Cited by:
Cited – Udall v Capri Lighting Ltd (in liquidation) CA 1987
A claim was made for the price of goods sold and delivered. The defendant’s solicitor gave an oral undertaking to his counterpart to procure the execution by directors of his client company of charges over their homes in return for an adjournment . .
Cited – Angel Solicitors v Jenkins O’Dowd and Barth ChD 19-Jan-2009
Actions were brought to enforce undertakings given by solicitors to redeem mortgages on the sale of properties, and as to redemption figures provided by lenders who then refused to release the properties. The solicitors had replied to standard form . .
Cited – Tim Martin Interiors Ltd v Akin Gump Llp ChD 17-Nov-2010
The company borrowed money from a bank, who instructed the defendants to act in the loan. On recovering the loan, the borrowers challenged the amounts charged by the solicitors. The court was asked what were the powers for a third party paying a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.280267