The Supreme Court Costs Office

No.5 of 2006

Sisu and Others v Tucker [2005] EWHC 2321 (Ch), [2006] 2 Costs LR 26

28 October 2005

Warren J.

Warren J considered whether colleagues of appointed Office Holders at accountants KPMG were entitled to payment as remuneration (not as a disbursement) for their time spent in dealing with the proceedings (specifically financial modelling, reviewing documents for disclosure, attending Court hearings etc), over and above the sums the Office Holders would receive under the insolvency rules. Following an extensive review of the authorities, Warren J allowed to be brought within the detailed assessment only those parts of KPMG’s costs which fell within the principle in Nossens Patent [1969] 1 WLR 683 vis:

“If expert assistance is properly required, a corporation’s own specialist employees may be the most suitable or convenient experts to employ and that the direct costs but not a contribution to overheads should be recoverable”. (See Nossens at page 644 per Lloyd-Jacob J).