Winner pays loser’s costs

Kastor Navigation Ltd and another v AGF MAT and others (No 2) (QBD TLR 29 March)

It is no longer a prerequisite that the party who is successful overall in the litigation should only pay the costs of the other party of a particular issue on which the successful party had failed if it were demonstrated that the successful party had acted unreasonably or improperly. The claim arose out of the loss of a vessel caused by fire in which the Court held that the claimants were not entitled to recover the actual total loss caused by the fire, as initially pleaded, but only for indemnity in respect of the constructive total loss of the vehicle, as introduced by an amendment to the pleadings. The making and pursuit of the claim for the actual total loss substantially lengthened and increased the costs both of the action and of the trial and, accordingly, applying the principles set out in CPR rule 44.3, it would be unjust to award the claimants all of their costs incurred after the latest date on which a Part 36 offer could be accepted. Because so small a part of the trial was concerned with the issue on which the claimants obtained judgment, the defendants were ordered to pay only 15% of the claimants’ costs and the claimants were ordered to pay 85% of the defendants’ costs.