Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2019 #175The claimants had applied to remove the 1st to 5th defendants as trustees, and the 6th defendant as protector, of a settlement which owned shares in the family company, and for a relief as to the disputed issue of preference shares in the company. The preference shares question was settled during the trial of a preliminary issue, on terms that the claimants’ costs were paid. The trustees and protector all resigned before trial of the removal application. The claimants applied for their costs on the basis that they had achieved the result they sought. The 1st to 4th defendants contended t...
Paul Jones outlines when a claim can escape the fixed costs regime ‘The key issue to be addressed was whether the Master had applied the correct legal test in determining whether the case should attract greater than fixed costs.’ The perennial argument in many current costs disputes is whether a case should attract fixed costs …
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Paul Jones explores when the court will depart from an approved costs budget ‘The judge held that the fact that the work actually done and claimed for by the claimant in relation to the expert and ADR/settlement phases was substantially less than had been envisaged in the budget was a good reason in itself to …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2019 #174The Background
The Privy Council heard eight appeals arising from the management of the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust (“TDT”) between March 2007 and October 2008.
The TDT is a discretionary trust governed by the law of Jersey; in the period in question it had two trustees which were governed by Guernsey law: Investec Trust (Guernsey) Limited (“Investec”) and Bayeux Trustees Limited (collectively “the Trustees”). In July 2010 the Trustees were replaced as trustees of the TDT by Rawlinson & Hunter Trustees SA (“R&H”), a company incorporated in Switzer...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2019 #174Following judgment upholding claims for various breaches of trust (Sheffield v Sheffield & ors [2014] WTLR 1039, [2013] EWHC 3927 (Ch)), the judge ordered accounts, on the footing of wilful default, and inquiries consequent upon the judgment. The accounting parties were the executors of (and standing in the shoes of) a defaulting trustee (“A”) and the individual who benefited from the breaches of trust (“B”). Agreement was reached in respect of certain accounts and the claimant (“C”) pursued other accounts and inquiries, in respect of various issues. The judge also ordered t...
Paul Jones highlights that there are still areas of dispute with fixed costs ‘The claimant’s case was that the reference to “the cost of obtaining” in CPR 45.29I(2) did not draw any distinction between the direct costs (the fee charged by the GP or hospital) and the indirect costs of an agent doing the work …
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Paul Jones examines the problems that can arise when cases are transferred between firms ‘The acceptance by the claimant of the new CFA was an acceptance of Secure Law’s repudiatory breach of the original CFA and, as such, extinguished any existing liability under that entire contract.’ The days when new case law dealing with the …
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Paul Jones explores whether all the penalties of a beaten Part 36 offer must apply or whether they can be severable ‘The matter arose from a clinical negligence case that had concluded in the claimant’s favour, including an order that the defendant pay the claimant’s costs on the standard basis.’ Once again, Part 36 offers …
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Paul Jones reviews a recent case that shows the unpredictability of the proportionality test ‘The issue facing district judges and costs judges whenever the issue of proportionality has to be considered is that there is virtually no guidance from the CPR, Practice Direction 44 or the higher courts on any element of how to apply …
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Abigail Lowther reviews a civil decision on a claim for costs by a firm against their former client, and the circumstances in which a default judgment may be set aside ‘A failure to provide a respondent (whether a litigant in person or not) with a response pack is a technical error, however it is not …
Continue reading "Costs: The need for clarity"
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