Apportionment of success

Hackney London Borough Council v Campbell and others CA SJ 6 May

The claimant local authority brought possession proceedings against the defendants. The first defendant defended the action and counterclaimed on the basis that she was entitled to execute her right to buy. The first defendant succeeded in her claim and the claimant was ordered to pay her costs. The second defendant had counterclaimed alleging nuisance, breach of repairing covenants, trespass and human rights violations, as well as relying on the right to buy. The defendant failed to establish that he had a right to buy and failed on all but one of the claims raised in his counterclaim. Nevertheless, the judge ordered the claimant to pay the whole of the second defendant’s costs.