The Supreme Court Costs Office

No.25 of 2002

Giambrone v JMC Holidays Ltd (No.2)
20 December 2002
Mr Justice Morland (Sitting With Assessors)

This was an appeal from a Costs Judge's decision in which, after a 2½ day hearing with Leading Counsel, he decided that the claimant's bill was disproportionate. The facts were undoubtedly extreme, but in dismissing the appeal the Judge laid down in forthright language his view that such an exercise should never again be undertaken, and nor was it necessary to do so in order to follow the advice laid down by the Court of Appeal in Lownds v Home Office.

The Judge was doubtless influenced by the fact that 19 days had been spent on interlocutory skirmishing, as he put it, without any part of the claimant's bill being actually assessed.

The Judge also deprecated the fact that no group litigation order had been made in the matter, and strongly suggested that appeals against Costs Judge's decisions on proportionality should not readily be mounted or entertained.