Order in favour of non-party

Individual Homes Ltd v MacBream Investments Ltd (CHD TLR 14 November)

The claimant had issued and served a witness summons under CPR Part 34 on an employee of the Halifax Bank of Scotland plc requiring his attendance at the hearing of the action and the production of the bank’s documentation. It was an anomaly that if the application had been made under s34 of the Supreme Court Act 1981, the rules would have provided that the person against whom the order had been made could recover the costs of compliance with the order, but there is no equivalent provision in Part 34 to enable a witness to recover his costs of complying with a summons. The courts of first instance have jurisdiction under CPR rule 48.2 to award costs where it is just and reasonable and therefore it was appropriate to order that the bank be joined to the proceedings for the purposes of costs and that the claimant be ordered to pay the costs incurred by the bank in complying with the summons.