Enforcing interim costs orders

Days Healthcare UK Ltd v Pihsiang Machinery Manufacturing Co Ltd and another [2006] EWHC 1444 (QB)

The defendant had failed to comply with an order to make an interim costs payment of £2m plus interest and the claimant applied for an order that unless the payment was made, a final costs certificate should be issued in the amount it had claimed. The costs judge had been wrong to doubt whether he had jurisdiction to make such an order and to say that the proper approach was to enforce the order against the defendants in Taiwan. Quite apart from any specific rule, the court has an inherent jurisdiction to control its own processes sufficiently enough to enable it to make the order sought. CPR rule 3.1(1) expressly preserves the inherent powers of the court, while rule 3.1(3)(a) provides that where the court makes an order in the course of its general powers of management, it can do so subject to conditions, including a condition to pay a sum of money into court. However, points of dispute having been properly served, the order should provide for there to be an assessment but the defendants should not be permitted to participate further unless they made the interim payment.