Cayman Court Provides Clarity On Costs

In a costs ruling delivered on 12 March 2021, the Honourable Justice Ramsay-Hale provided welcome clarity on the circumstances in which the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands will make a costs award on the indemnity basis.¹ A successful party can expect to recover a higher proportion of its costs when an award is made on the indemnity basis (rather than the standard basis) since only costs that are unreasonably incurred or are of an unreasonable amount will be disallowed on taxation, and any doubts as to reasonableness are resolved in favour of the successful party.²

In this case, Zhongzhi Capital (HK) Company Ltd ("ZZHK") had succeeded in its substantive application to rectify the register of members of Geopay Holding Limited ("Company") so as to register ZZHK as the holder of certain shares in the Company in place of Geoswift Holdings Limited ("Geoswift"). Geoswift had pledged its shares in the Company as security in return for a loan advanced to Geoswift by