Costs - Ashany v Eco-Bat Technologies
Court of Appeal considers costs consequences where claimant
discontinued claim.
Unless the parties agree, or the court orders, otherwise, the
normal costs consequence of a claimant discontinuing its claim is
that the claimant will be liable for the costs incurred by the
defendant up to the date on which the notice of discontinuance was
served. At first instance in this case, that presumption was
disapplied, and the defendant appealed.
The Court of Appeal commented that "The presumption in
r.38.6 arises because, in the ordinary case, the discontinuance of
a claim by a claimant against a defendant will usually amount to an
admission or an acceptance that the proceedings should never have
been commenced. In such a case, the starting point must be that the
defendant is entitled to its costs, and that is reflected in the
default rule". But here, the proceedings had been commenced
because of "considerable prevarication and delay"
