Charm Maritime Incorporated v Elborne Mitchell - Court of Appeal (Evans, Waite and Swinton Thomas LJJ) - 22 July 1997

Practice - Costs - Defendants making payment into court - Plaintiff recovering damages marginally exceeding payment into court - Appropriate order as to costs

The plaintiffs brought a claim for damages for negligence against their former solicitors consequent upon an earlier action being dismissed for want of prosecution. There were three heads of damage in the present action. Under the first head the plaintiffs claimed US$6,165,000 together with interest from 1988 (being the maximum amount which the plaintiffs could have recovered against the defendant in the earlier proceedings). Under the second head the plaintiffs claimed some £20,400 (being the costs which the plaintiffs had paid the solicitors in the earlier proceedings and which the plaintiffs could have recovered from the defendant in those proceedings). Under the third head the plaintiffs claimed a further sum in relation to costs which the plaintiffs had had to pay the defendant in the earlier proceedings.