Simon Browne QC and Jeremy Reed (instructed by Atkins Thomson ) for the claimants; Matthew Nicklin QC and George McDonald (instructed by RPC LLP ) for the defendant.
The defendant was ordered to pay damages to the eight claimants for infringement of their privacy rights: see [2015] EWHC 1482 (Ch); [2015] WLR (D) 232. The eighth claimant was awarded damages less than a Part 36 offer made by the defendant. Mann J ordered that there be no order as to costs in respect of the costs from the last acceptance date of the offer. The eighth claimant was treated as being liable for his share of the common costs from 1 January 2015 to the end of the trial. However, a separate consent order was signed dealing with common costs matters. The defendant applied under CPR 3.1(7) to vary the order made on common costs (1) on the ground of mistake and that there should be no order as to costs in respect of the eighth claimant’s share of the common costs whereas the claimant said that the order only referred to his individual costs because the common costs had already been dealt with, and (2) to remove from its remit five additional claims that were stayed pending the trial of the eight claims. The defendant asserted that it was inappropriate to refer to those additional claims which had not yet been heard.
On the common costs of the eighth claimant, the order would be varied so that the order extended to the eighth claimant’s common costs as well as his individual costs after the last acceptance date of the Part 36 offer. On the common costs of the five undecided cases, the order would not be varied. Accordingly, the defendant’s application was granted in part.
CPR r 3.1(7)