Description
Application for an order for payment on account of costs under CPR 44.3(8) based on a consent order made in the Supreme Court. Application opposed on the ground that the Senior Courts Costs Office had no jurisdiction: costs were ordered to be paid by the Supreme Court, to which the CPRs do not apply.
Held: The CPRs apply to orders where the Supreme Court is in effect exercising the jurisdiction of the courts below, such as by reversing the orders of those courts as to require the respondent to pay the appellants' costs (as in the present case). As such, the CPRs applied to the orders and to the detailed assessment of costs made under those orders, and the Senior Courts Costs Office had jurisdiction to make the order sought under CPR 44.3(8).
Obiter: That each stage of the proceedings, where the appellants lost, were governed by a separate conditional fee agreement did not mean that no costs could be recovered in respect of those proceedings. The effect of the consent order in the Supreme Court was that the appellants won at each stage because their claim for damages, relief and repayment of premiums paid was decided in their favour.
