Security for Costs

De Beer v Kanaar & Co (CA 2001 EWCA Civ 1318)

The fact that the claimant, a Dutch national residing in Florida, had assets in Holland and Switzerland did not protect him from an order for security for costs under CPR 35.13(2)(a)(ii) as being ‘a person against whom a claim [could] be enforced under the Brussels Conventions or the Lugano Convention’. The rule is aimed at the juridical characteristics of the claimant, regardless of the assets that he owned or where those assets might be situated. A claimant who was not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom or a Convention state could not escape liability to give security for costs merely by placing an asset in a Convention state.