Interest on costs

Powell v Herefordshire Health Authority (CA LSG 10 April)

In a clinical negligence claim on behalf of a child who suffered severe brain damage soon after her birth, liability was admitted and judgment entered in April 1994. The damages were not assessed until June 2001, when there was an award of £2,175,000. The claim for interest on the Bill of Costs almost exceeded the amount of the bill itself, being dated back to April 1994. The delay had arisen from uncertainty about the medical prognosis rather than any sloth on the part of the claimant or his lawyers. The defendant contended that interest should run from the date of the actual assessment of the quantum of damages. On the assumption that these were the only two dates available to him, the costs judge ordered interest from the date of the judgment rather than the date of the quantification of damages. In overturning the costs judge, the Court of Appeal noted that neither party had referred the costs judge to CPR rule 44.3(6)(g) which provides:‘The orders which the court may make under this rule include an order that a party must pay … (g) interest on costs from or until a certain date, including a date before judgment.’