Mastercigars Direct Ltd v Withers Llp: ChD 23 Nov 2007

The court considered an appeal against a costs award where the solicitors had given an estimate, but had then exceeded the estimate.
Held: Morgan J said: ‘The closing submissions were recorded by the Costs Judge at paragraph 59 and 60 of his judgment, which included the reference to Cook on Costs, 2007 Edition page 15. The passage in Cook on Costs stated that unless the client was notified of the further sums payable, preferably before they were incurred, then the solicitor would be unable to recover costs in excess of the estimated amount. In my judgment, that passage does not correctly state the law. It seems to me that on a fair reading of the judgment, the Costs Judge was relying on this passage in Cook on Costs. Insofar as the Costs Judge relied upon that passage in Cook on Costs he was led into error in making his finding as to the contractual position. The contractual position is that the solicitors are entitled to a reasonable fee and in the present case in respect of certain bills that fee is to be the subject of a detailed assessment. At the stage of the detailed assessment, the estimate has the relevance which I have described above as a yardstick and in respect of any case raised by the client as to reliance on the estimate. Although the Costs Judge referred . . to ‘all the evidence, oral and documentary’, it seems to me that I must inevitably find that his reasoning is based on his analysis of the contractual position, which for the reasons I have given was incorrect. It follows that I must allow the appeal.’

Judges:

Morgan J

Citations:

[2007] EWHC 2733 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Reynolds v Stone Rowe Brewer (A Firm) QBD 18-Mar-2008
The solicitors appealed against the assessment of their costs. The judge had found that they had estimated their costs and applied a 15% margin of error.
Held: the judge should have given reasons for his judgment to allow the parties to assess . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Costs

Updated: 12 July 2022; Ref: scu.261501