Refusal to mediate

The Weathered Estate Ltd v Davis and others ChD LSG 13 October

In a dispute concerning the parking of a vehicle by the defendants on the claimant’s property, the claimant refused the defendants’ proposal to mediate while the vehicle remained on its land. After the vehicle had been removed, the claimant still refused to mediate until each party had clarified the issues in dispute. After proceedings had been issued, mediation proved unsuccessful and the claimant succeeded at trial. The court rejected the defendants’ argument that the claimant should not be entitled to its costs because it had been unreasonable in refusing to mediate until after proceedings had commenced. It was not unreasonable for the claimant to have refused mediation while the vehicle remained on the land and although in many cases it would not be reasonable to defer mediation until the litigation had reached an advanced stage, the present case involved questions of construction and argument against a disputed factual matrix. It had not been shown that it was unreasonable for mediation not to have taken place until the true nature of the dispute between the parties had been defined.