Individual claim in group litigation

Owen v Ministry of Defence [2006] EWHC 990 (QB)

The claimant in group litigation was awarded personal damages for clinical negligence. The MoD sought to set off the claimant’s proportionate share of the costs of trial of the generic issues, against either his costs of his individual action or against his damages. Although the claimant might have benefited in the pursuit of his individual action had the generic issues been resolved differently, the fact remained that in his own individual action the claimant proved that he sustained injury and consequential loss and damage, as a consequence of negligent treatment. He would have succeeded in that action whether or not the generic issues had been litigated. The formation of the group litigation and his involvement in it, as to which he had no real choice, inevitably resulted in a very substantial delay in the resolution of his claim. The justice of the case required that neither the claimant’s own order for costs nor his damages should be subject to a set-off of his share of the generic costs.