Interim payments

Capital One Developments Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise (Ch D TLR 18 February)

Although the court has jurisdiction to entertain an application for an interim injunction to order payment of a disputed sum from the defendant to the claimant on the basis that the claimant would repay the sum if it lost its substantive appeal, there would have to be very special facts before the court for it to make such an order. The claimants made their application for an interim payment of £8 million pending their appeal to the VAT Tribunal against the Commissioners’ refusal ofVAT credit. It would have been more appropriate for the application to have been by way of judicial review, nevertheless the court did have jurisdiction to entertain the application, even though it refused it.