
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE <>
CHANCERY DIVISION <>
<> BETWEEN<>
(1) Sir Elton Hercules John
(2) Happenstance Limited
(3) William A Bong Limited
(4) J Bondi Limited
Claimants
-and-
(1) Price Waterhouse
(a firm now carrying on business under the name PricewaterhouseCoopers)
(2) Andrew Mansel Haydon
Defendants
AND BETWEEN
(a firm carrying on
business under the name PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Part 20 Claimants
-and-
(1) Frere Cholmeley (a firm)
(2) Frere Cholmely Bischoff (a firm)
JUDGMENT
OF
The Honourable Mr Justice Ferris
(on indemnity costs and associated matters)
Mr J Hirst QC and
Mr N Calver instructed by Eversheds appeared on behalf of the Claimants.
Mr C
Kinsky instructed by Barlow Lyde & Gilbert appeared on behalf of the First
Defendant and Part 20 Claimants.
Mr A Fletcher instructed by LeBoeuf Lamb
Greene & MacRae appeared on behalf of the Second Defendant.
Mr M
Kallipetis QC and Mr S Monty instructed by Ince & Co. appeared on behalf of
the Part 20 Defendants.
Hearing Dates: 5th and 6th June 2001.
Judgment
Handed Down: 12th July 2001
| JUDGMENT: APPROVED BY THE COURT FOR HANDING DOWN(SUBJECT TO EDITORIAL CORRECTIONS) | |||||||||||
| Mr Justice Ferris : | |||||||||||
| 1. | I handed down my judgment in this action on 11th April 2001. On that occasion I dealt with a number of consequential matters, including in particular the incidence of the costs of the main action as between the claimants and the defendants and the incidence of the costs of the Part 20 proceedings. Certain other matters were expressly stood over for further consideration on a future occasion. I have now heard argument on those matters. On the application for permission to appeal I have given my decision orally. On certain questions relating to costs I reserved judgment. This is my decision on those questions. | ||||||||||
| 2. | The parts of the order made on 11th April 2001 which are relevant to this decision can be summarised as follows: | ||||||||||
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| 3. | The matters on which I have now heard further argument and on which I now give judgment are the following: | ||||||||||
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| 4. | Applications by Mr Haydon that | ||||||||||
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| 5. | The application by Mr Haydon for interest on his costs under CPR 44.3(6)(g) which was adumbrated on 11th April and referred to in my order of that date has not been pursued. | ||||||||||
| PW's application for indemnity costs | |||||||||||
| 6. | This application was made on two alternative bases, which I shall refer to as "the section 51 basis" and "the Articles basis" respectively. | ||||||||||
| (1) The section 51 basis | |||||||||||
| 7. | What may be described as the ordinary jurisdiction of the court to make orders in respect of the costs of and incidental to proceedings before it is conferred by section 51 of the Supreme Court Act 1981Acts and, so far as material to this case, is exercisable in accordance with the provisions of CPRs 43 and 44. Under CPR 44.4 the court may direct that a party's costs be assessed either on the standard basis or on the indemnity basis. It is unnecessary to go into the difference between them save to mention that the indemnity basis is more advantageous to the receiving party and correspondingly more burdensome to the paying party. PW's first argument was to invoke this jurisdiction. | ||||||||||
| 8. | There can be no doubt that, when I handed down my judgment on 11th April, I had jurisdiction, if I thought it right to do so, to order not only that the claimants should pay PW's costs, but that those costs should be assessed on the indemnity basis. Further if, as was done on behalf of Mr Haydon, I had been asked to defer to a future occasion the consideration of an application for assessment on the indemnity basis I could, and almost certainly would, have acceded to this application. | ||||||||||
| 9. | The difficulty which lies in the way of PW's reliance on this jurisdiction is that not only was no application for deferment made on behalf of PW but counsel for PW expressly stated | ||||||||||
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| It was in the light of that statement, taken in conjunction with the submissions which I heard concerning other aspects of the application for costs, that I decided that Sir Elton and the EJ companies must pay PW's costs assessed on the standard basis. | |||||||||||
| 10. | In my judgment, by making this decision I exhausted the general jurisdiction which I had under section 51 and CPRs 43-44 to make an order in respect of PW's costs. My order of 11th April has been perfected and I cannot now recall it or vary it. This is not a case where I have jurisdiction under the "slip rule" (CPR 44.12). Accordingly I hold that this limb of PW's application must fail. | ||||||||||
| 11. | I would add that, even if I had a continuing jurisdiction, I would have found it difficult to accede to this limb of PW's application for indemnity costs. It was founded upon the fact that on 21st July 2000 the solicitors for PW wrote to the solicitors for the claimants saying, amongst other things, | ||||||||||
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| 12. | The letter was expressed to be written without prejudice save as to costs. The offer was not accepted by the claimants on or before 4th August 2000 or at all. It was contended that, the claimants having turned down a proposal which, in the event, proved to be much more advantageous to them than my judgment, this is a matter to be taken into account by the court, at any rate in respect of costs incurred after the date of the letter. It was not suggested that any of the automatic consequences of a Part 36 offer are applicable, but it was said that this letter constituted an admissible offer to settle to which the court ought to have regard under CPR 44.3(4)(c). | ||||||||||
| 13. | If I had had a continuing jurisdiction I would have agreed that the letter is to be taken into account, but I would have given it little weight. This is because the offer was expressed to be conditional upon FC agreeing to the discontinuance of the Part 20 Proceedings with no order as to costs. There was no evidence that FC was ever willing to agree this. Certainly the claimants were never told that they were willing. The claimants' failure to accept a proposal which was subject to this major unsatisfied condition is in my view, of comparatively small significance. | ||||||||||
| (2) The Articles basis | |||||||||||
| 14. | The alternative basis of PW's claim for indemnity costs was a provision in the articles of association of each of the EJ companies. | ||||||||||
| 15. | Happenstance and Bong each adopted as its articles, subject to certain modifications, the provisions of Table A to the Companies Act 1948. Amongst those provisions, and adopted by Happenstance and Bong without modification, is regulation 136, which is in the following terms: | ||||||||||
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| 16. | In the case of Bondi the articles follow Table A to the Companies Act 1985Acts. Regulation 118 of Table A to the 1985 Act, which was adopted by Bondi without modification, is to the same effect as regulation 136 of the 1948 Table, although there are some differences in language which are of no substance in relation to the point at issue. | ||||||||||
| 17. | The contention of PW was that, judgment having been given in their favour in proceedings concerning its conduct as auditor of the EJ companies, they are entitled to be indemnified out of the assets of each of the EJ companies against the costs incurred by them in defending those proceedings. This was said to be a contractual entitlement which became fully constituted when I gave judgment in favour of PW in the main action. | ||||||||||
| 18. | The interaction of a contractual right to indemnity costs
and the jurisdiction of the court under section 51 was considered by the
Court of Appeal in | ||||||||||
| 19. | In the course of its judgment the Court of Appeal stated a number of principles which emerged from the authorities which it considered. So far as material these were as follows: | ||||||||||
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| 20. | The Court of Appeal expressed that part of its conclusion which is directly material to the present case in the following paragraph at pages 194-5: | ||||||||||
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| 21. | On behalf of PW, Mr Kinsky relied upon the fact that in
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| 22. | In | ||||||||||
| 23. | Here the procedural position is somewhat different. The contractual right of PW to an indemnity under the articles, assuming that there is such a right, is not formally in issue in the proceedings. Indeed it could not be, because any cause of action was not complete until I gave judgment on 11th April and thereby disposed of the present proceedings except in respect of reserved matters. | ||||||||||
| 24. | Accordingly, although I would accept that the fact that I made an order for standard basis costs in exercise of my section 51 jurisdiction does not detract from any contractual right of PW to indemnity costs under the articles and I expressly confirm that no such right was present to my mind on 11th April, I consider that a great deal of caution must be exercised in giving effect to any such right in the present proceedings. Indeed before the recent procedural reforms I think that most judges would have said it could not be done. A new cause of action must be the subject of new proceedings. In the new climate, however, I think that a more informal approach might be possible if it could be seen that to leave the matter to be dealt with in fresh proceedings would needlessly result in extra costs being incurred. Nevertheless I consider that it would be right to proceed in this way only if it were clear that there could be no defence to a contractual claim for indemnity costs, so that if a fresh action were commenced summary judgment would be given in favour of PW. | ||||||||||
| 25. | On behalf of the EJ companies Mr Hirst submitted that it is far from clear that there could be no defence. He pointed out that there had been no hint of a claim to a contractual right to indemnity costs under the articles until PW's application notice dated 16th May 2001 was received, so that there had been little opportunity for the point to be considered. He also disputed that the effect of the articles was incorporated into the contract between the EJ companies and PW. Even if it was, Mr Hirst submitted that the articles give an indemnity only against costs incurred in successfully defending claims brought by third parties, not claims brought by the company in question. | ||||||||||
| 26. | If the last point stood alone I would have no difficulty in
rejecting it. There would be no logic in providing for an indemnity in
respect of the costs of unsuccessful claims by third parties but not in
respect of the costs of unsuccessful claims by the company itself. In any
event the terms of the articles in question show, in my judgment, that no
such distinction was envisaged. Regulation 136 of the 1948 Table A states
in terms that there is to be an indemnity not only in respect of the costs
of proceedings successfully defended but also in respect of costs incurred
where an officer or auditor of a company is given relief under section 448
on the ground that he has acted honestly and reasonably and ought to be
excused. Article 118 of the 1985 Table A does not refer specifically to
section 727 of the Companies Act 1985Acts, which has taken the place of
section 448, but there can be no doubt that the reference to "relief" is a
reference to this section. It is clear that relief under section 448, and
now under section 727, can be given in proceedings brought by the company.
Indeed in | ||||||||||
| 27. | I found greater substance in Mr Hirst's point that the articles are not, or may not be, part of the contract between the EJ companies and PW. The articles of a company constitute a contract between the members of the company inter se and between each of them and the company but they do not, without more, constitute a contract between the company and its directors or auditors. Nevertheless the terms of regulations 136 and 118 appear clearly to contemplate that directors and auditors (amongst others) will have a right, which could only be a contractual right, to be indemnified as there mentioned. It seems to me that comparatively little will be required to satisfy the court that, in particular cases, the indemnity provided for by regulations 136 and 118 is incorporated in the contract which is made when the company appoints a director or an auditor. | ||||||||||
| 28. | On this question I was referred to | ||||||||||
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| 29. | Mr Kinsky submitted that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it should be assumed that the auditors of a company are engaged on the footing of the articles of the company, including any article giving them an indemnity, and that accordingly the indemnity given by the articles of each of the EJ companies was incorporated in the contract between each company and PW. | ||||||||||
| 30. | Mr Hirst submitted that the matter is not as simple as
that. He referred me to | ||||||||||
| 31. | The trial judge, Romer J, found that the auditors had been negligent and would be liable but for article 150 but he then said (at page 499): | ||||||||||
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| He held that the auditors acted in good faith, albeit mistakenly, and that their negligence was not wilful. Accordingly they were exonerated. | |||||||||||
| 32. | In the Court of Appeal Warrington LJ dealt in greater detail with the incorporation of article 150 in the contract between the company and the auditors. He said (at pages 520-521):- | ||||||||||
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| The other two members of the court, Sir Ernest Pollock MR and Sargant LJ, agreed that the auditors were exonerated by article 150 but did not discuss the means by which that article had been incorporated in the relevant contract (see pages 515-518 and 531-2). | |||||||||||
| 33. | Mr Hirst submitted that the words of Warrington LJ showed that the terms of the articles would not be incorporated in a contract between a company and its auditors where the terms of engagement are expressed in a separate document. This means that it is necessary, in a case where auditors seek to rely on a provision of the company's articles, to examine carefully the terms on which the auditors were engaged. This could not reliably be done on a summary application of the present kind. | ||||||||||
| 34. | Further Mr Hirst submitted that there was evidence in this case that PW were engaged on the terms of a document separate from the articles of any of the EJ companies. This is the letter of engagement, signed by Sir Elton and dated 1st July 1997, which is briefly referred to in paragraph 33 of my main judgment. This letter of engagement presents a number of problems, including the fact that, apart from PW, it was signed only by Sir Elton, who was not a director of any of the EJ companies; it was signed months before PW were formally appointed auditors of the EJ companies by resolutions which made no reference to the letter of engagement; it was expressed in terms which are silent about a number of matters, such as remuneration, which must have been agreed between the EJ companies and PW; and it is not inconsistent with the incorporation of the articles in question into the contract. Nevertheless it is impossible to say that there are no factual issues which may need to be examined in relation to the argument that the articles were incorporated. | ||||||||||
| 35. | If there was incorporation then it appears to me that PW's argument, although a novel one in relation to a claim for indemnity costs in proceedings for negligence, has considerable force. I have therefore considered carefully whether I ought, in these proceedings, to resolve the issues which arise in relation to it. In the end, however, I have reached the conclusion that this would not be the right course to take having regard to the circumstances which I have mentioned. | ||||||||||
| 36. | In the result, therefore, I refuse PW's application for indemnity costs. But I make it clear that, while my conclusion in respect of the section 51 jurisdiction is final, nothing which I have said will prevent PW seeking to recover the difference between the standard costs which I have awarded them and indemnity costs in separate proceedings to enforce the contractual terms of which PW claims the benefit under the articles. | ||||||||||
| PW's claim for interest on their costs for the period 4th August 2000 to 11th April 2001 | |||||||||||
| 37. | In the ordinary way interest on costs runs from the date on
which the court awards costs and directs them to be taxed, in this case
11th April 2001 (see | ||||||||||
| 38. | A specific case in which the CPRs envisage that the court may award interest on costs is where a part 36 offer is made by a claimant but not accepted by the defendant and the claimant subsequently does better at trial. In such a case the court may do a number of things including awarding interest on the sum awarded at a generous (or possibly even a penal) rate, awarding indemnity costs and awarding interest on those costs (see CPR 36.21(2) and (3)). This provision is not of course, applicable to the circumstances of the present case. It was relied upon, as I understand it, as an example of the way in which the CPRs recognise that a party is likely to have to lay out money on costs at a date significantly earlier than that from which interest on any costs awarded to him by the court will normally run and make provision for this to be compensated for in appropriate cases. | ||||||||||
| 39. | PW's argument that I should exercise in their favour the jurisdiction conferred on me by CPR 44.3(6)(g) was based upon the proposition that this would be just in the present case because the costs incurred were unusually large (I say something about the amount under the next head) and a reasonable offer was made which, if accepted, would have resulted in no further costs being incurred. | ||||||||||
| 40. | So far as the latter point is concerned, the reasonable offer referred to is that embodied in the letter of 21st July 2000 which I have already considered. In view of the conditionality of that offer its non-acceptance is not, in my judgment, a factor which would justify an award of interest on costs in any part of the period before 11th April 2001. | ||||||||||
| 41. | As to the amount of the costs, I accept that, even allowing for the costs attributable to the unsuccessful Part 20 proceedings, they are very large. No particulars were provided as to the dates on which they were actually laid out, but I accept that very considerable sums must have been expended in the course of preparation for trial, well before 11th April 2001. Nevertheless I do not think that the fact that the costs are large carries very great weight. | ||||||||||
| 42. | In addition the award of costs or of interest on costs involves an exercise of discretion in which the judge has to have regard to all the circumstances (see CPR 44.3(4)). When I made my decision in respect of costs on 11th April I tried to do this. In particular I had to consider an application on the part of the claimants that I should reduce the costs awarded to PW in such a way as to reflect the fact that PW had been unsuccessful on a number of issues. I concluded that it would not be appropriate to do so, having regard to all the circumstances. I was not asked on that occasion to make any order for interest on costs and it would be going too far to say that a factor which was actually present in my mind was that PW would receive no interest on their costs for any period before 11th April. Nevertheless the decision which I made on 11th April was made in an attempt to achieve a just and appropriate result in all the circumstances of the case. I do not consider it would be right now to vary the impact of that decision by exercising in favour of PW the jurisdiction to award interest on costs. | ||||||||||
| PW's application for a payment on account of their costs | |||||||||||
| 43. | This was a matter which was expressly stood over by my order of 11th April. It is not in dispute that an order for a payment on account should be made. Indeed at the time when I reserved my decision on the questions dealt with in this judgment I made, without opposition from Mr Hirst on behalf of the claimants, an order for an interim payment to PW of an amount equal to the payment which PW had agreed to make to FC on account of the costs of the Part 20 proceedings. The question which I have to decide under this head is what additional sum should be paid by the claimants. | ||||||||||
| 44. | On the footing that, as I have decided, PW are to recover only standard costs under the order made in these proceedings, the amount which PW seeks on account of costs, inclusive of the sum already ordered to be paid in connection with the Part 20 costs liability of PW, is £1.4 million. This sum is arrived at as follows. In round figures PW's total costs of the proceedings are estimated at a little under £3.2 million. Of this, a part is attributable to the Part 20 proceedings, which PW cannot recover from the claimants. This is put at £0.2 million, a figure which is calculated by reference to the proportion of the trial which was taken up by Mr Kallipetis on behalf of the Part 20 defendants. Allowing a further reduction to reflect the fact that PW will not be allowed all their costs on an assessment on the standard basis, it is suggested that PW will nevertheless recover at least £1.4 million from the claimants in respect of their costs and that this should be the amount of the payment on account. (If I had been in favour of PW on their claim to indemnity costs the suggested amount would have been £2 million.) | ||||||||||
| 45. | On behalf of the claimants it was submitted that this sum is far too high. They said that, in the absence of a formal bill (the time for lodging which I extended by consent until 10th October 2001) PW's costs on the indemnity basis should be taken as no more than £3 million, of which £1.5 million, which is roughly equivalent to the suggested costs of FC as Defendant in the Part 20 proceedings, should be attributed to PW's costs of the Part 20 proceedings. The claimants submitted that a payment of £750,000 (which is 50% of the residual £1.5 million) would be an appropriate payment on account of costs which are to be assessed on the standard basis. | ||||||||||
| 46. | Clearly a broad brush approach must be adopted in relation to a payment on account of costs which have yet to be assessed or even quantified in a formal bill, and it is best to err on the side of caution. I think that the allowance which PW suggested in respect of the proportion of their total costs attributable to the Part 20 proceedings was much too low and that suggested on behalf of the claimants is likely to be too high. I also consider that the claimants' approach would lean too far in favour of caution. Doing the best I can in all the circumstances I hold that the sum to be paid by the claimants on account of PW's costs, including the interim sum which I ordered to be paid when I reserved judgment, should be £1 million. | ||||||||||
| Mr Haydon's application for indemnity costs | |||||||||||
| 47. | As I stood over Mr Haydon's application for indemnity costs when it was made to me on 11th April, I have not yet exhausted my jurisdiction under section 51 and CPRs 43 and 44 to make an order that the costs which I have awarded him be assessed on the indemnity basis. The question is whether I think it right to do this in the exercise of my discretion. In doing so I must have regard to all the circumstances of the case including the factors mentioned in CPR 44.3(4). | ||||||||||
| 48. | Mr Haydon relied also on the articles point, saying that if this assisted PW it must be of equal assistance to himself, because the articles in question give the same indemnity to directors as they give to auditors. Indeed it was argued by Mr Fletcher on behalf of Mr Haydon that he is in a better position than PW so far as the articles are concerned. This is because it cannot be said that Mr Haydon's engagement as a director of Happenstance and Bondi (it will be recollected that I have held that he was not even a shadow director of Bong) is governed by a separate instrument. The letter of engagement relied upon as against PW does not apply to Mr Haydon and I was satisfied at the trial that he had no personal contract of employment with any of the EJ companies. | ||||||||||
| 49. | While I accept that Mr Haydon's claim under the articles is, if anything, more straightforward than PW's claim, I have reached the conclusion that it would not be right to uphold that claim in these proceedings when I am leaving the equivalent claim of PW to be dealt with, if it is proceeded with at all, in separate proceedings. The point is, to me at any rate, a novel one and I am unwilling to run the risk that, after I had given effect to the articles claim in favour of Mr Haydon, separate proceedings brought by PW might establish that there is some answer to it which could be relied upon against Mr Haydon as well. | ||||||||||
| 50. | I therefore deal with Mr Haydon's application for indemnity costs on what may be described as "conventional" grounds. As to these, under the old Rules of the Supreme Court the court declined to define the exact circumstances in which indemnity costs might be ordered. This remains the position under the CPRs. The considerations referred to in CPR 44.3 apply in relation to both standard costs and indemnity costs and to the choice of one basis of assessment over the other. | ||||||||||
| 51. | I was referred to a helpful summary of the principles which
were applied under the RSC which is contained in the judgment of Hollis J,
with whom Russell LJ agreed, in | ||||||||||
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| 52. | The decision of the Court of Appeal in | ||||||||||
| 53. | I read the observations of the Court of Appeal in
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| 54. | Mr Fletcher addressed to me a careful argument by reference to the factors stated in CPR 44.3(4). In this judgment I set out only a brief summary of the factors referred to by Mr Fletcher. Where relevant I include also any counteracting features relied upon by Mr Hirst. | ||||||||||
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| 55. | Mr Fletcher submitted that the claimants had launched the proceedings in an aggressive manner with a letter before action dated 14th December 1998 peremptorily demanding Mr Haydon's agreement not later than 12th January 1999 to pay a sum in excess of £20 million followed by actual payment by 29th January 1999. Mr Fletcher justifiably said that this was a devastating claim to make against a private individual and one which would spell personal ruin for Mr Haydon. I agree that the claim was an aggressive one. It was however made in good faith and, granted that it was the claim which the claimants thought they were entitled to make, there was no particularly gentle way in which it could be made. | ||||||||||
| 56. | Mr Fletcher relied also on the fact that a claim for breach of fiduciary duty was made against Mr Haydon and, despite a marked failure to particularise it adequately, was persisted in until the second day of the trial when it was abandoned. | ||||||||||
| 57. | Mr Fletcher submitted that the claim in negligence was also unsatisfactory in that it was vague and general and did not clearly identify what Mr Haydon was alleged to have done or omitted in the relevant capacity. I do not propose to examine the pleadings in detail, but I think that this is a valid criticism. It was really only when the case was narrowed in the course of the closing submissions for the claimants so as to become focused on the two issues which I referred to in paragraph 278 of my judgment that it became possible to define precisely what the complaint was. | ||||||||||
| 58. | The impact of these last two features is that, in the case of the claim for breach of fiduciary duty, Mr Haydon will have incurred costs in meeting charges which were not persisted in and, in the case of the negligence claim, he is likely to have incurred greater costs than he would have incurred if the case had been more precisely pleaded. | ||||||||||
| 59. | Mr Hirst referred to the fact that the main ground on which I found in favour of Mr Haydon, namely that he was acting as an executive of JREL rather than as a director of any of the EJ companies, was only introduced into the pleadings at a late stage. It seems to me, however, that the point was one which the EJ companies should themselves have addressed from the outset, because the capacity in which Mr Haydon was acting was fundamental to their case. Mr Hirst referred also to Mr Haydon's admission that "we made a substantial mess of recharges of salaries and expenses". But the "we" in this statement is quite clearly JREL and does not amount to any justification for a suggestion that Mr Haydon brought the proceedings on himself as distinct from JREL. In any event the salaries and expenses claim was comparatively small in relation to the tour agents claim. | ||||||||||
| 60. | Mr Hirst also pointed out that some of the factors which are now relied upon in support of Mr Haydon's application for indemnity costs were relied upon in support of an attempt made on 3rd July 2000 to persuade the court to allow a striking out application to be listed and heard. This attempt was rejected by Rimer J. It appears to me to have been a somewhat ambitious attempt and I am not surprised that it failed. The costs of it were, I understand, dealt with by a separate order. I do not think this matter carries any real weight in relation to the application for indemnity costs. | ||||||||||
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| 61. | Mr Haydon has been wholly successful in defeating the claim
against him, although some of the arguments deployed on his behalf,
notably the quasi rectification argument and the | ||||||||||
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| 62. | On 22nd August 2000 Mr Haydon's solicitors wrote to the solicitors for the EJ companies arguing that the claim against Mr Haydon was bound to fail. The letter concluded with the following paragraph: | ||||||||||
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| 63. | The offer was not accepted within the time specified or at all. I was told that an attempt was made to arrive at a settlement by mediation, but this failed. Very properly I was not told anything further about the mediation. | ||||||||||
| 64. | There was some argument before me about whether the offer made in the letter dated 22nd August was or was not a Part 36 offer. Clearly it was not one which had the consequences set out in Part 36 itself because CPR 36.3 provides that an offer by a defendant to settle a money claim will only have those consequences if it is made by way of a Part 36 payment, which this offer was not. CPR 36.5(6)(b) also appears not to have been complied with. | ||||||||||
| 65. | Accordingly the automatic consequences provided for by CPR 36.20 are not applicable, as Mr Fletcher accepted. I think it is worth noting, however, that if the letter of 22nd August had offered nominal damages of, say, £100 and this sum had been paid into court, and if the formalities prescribed by CPR 36.5(6) had been strictly complied with, CPR 36.20 would have applied to this case. Under this rule | ||||||||||
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| 66. | In my judgment, however, the fact that, on somewhat technical grounds, the letter was not such as to attract this consequence is of comparatively minor importance. As Mr Fletcher contended the letter can still have effect as a Calderbank offer, the concept of which is preserved by CPR 36.1. Moreover CPR 44.3(4)(c) requires the court to have regard to any admissible offer to settle "whether or not made in accordance with Part 36"; and CPR 36.1 itself recognises that the court may order that such an offer has the Part 36 consequences. | ||||||||||
| 67. | Drawing together the various threads which I have mentioned
I reach the conclusion that the circumstances relating to the claim
against Mr Haydon are not such as to justify an order that all his costs
are to be assessed on the indemnity basis. But I consider that the
non-acceptance of the offer contained in the letter of 22nd August leads
to a different result in respect of his costs incurred after 13th
September 2000, the date specified for acceptance of the offer. Had CPR 36.20 been automatically applicable I would
not have considered it unjust to make the order referred to in that rule.
Having regard to the fact that the offer fails to come within CPR 36.20 on grounds which, in relation to the
issues in this case, are of technical rather than substantive importance,
and having regard also to what was said in the | ||||||||||
| Mr Haydon's application that the amount to be paid on account of his costs be increased | |||||||||||
| 68. | My decision in respect of indemnity costs means that it is necessary to reconsider the amount payable on account of costs. My earlier order for a payment on account of £500,000 was based on the assumption that Mr Haydon's costs, estimated at £1.3 million plus VAT, would be assessed on the standard basis. It is difficult to gauge how much extra Mr Haydon will recover in respect of these costs which I order to be assessed on an indemnity basis and, as I indicated earlier, I think it right to adopt a cautious approach. I order that the amount to be paid on account of Mr Haydon's costs shall be increased from £500,000 to £650,000. Subject to any additional submissions which may be made to me, the additional £150,000 must be paid within 14 days of today. |