The High Court has granted Joe Webb and Mr Godson leave to use affidavits and exhibits from proceedings concerning the appointment of inspectors to Independent News and Media plc (INM) in their own proceedings against the company and/or Leslie Buckley.
In a supplemental judgment delivered on 15 February 2021, Mr Justice Garrett Simons also ordered Mr Buckley to pay the costs of the three motions heard on 28 July 2020, which had been decided in an earlier judgment. The costs are to include reserved costs, the hearing costs and any written submissions, and are to be assessed by the Office of the Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator if the parties cannot agree.
The judgment says the material had been filed in the Companies Act application for inspectors to investigate INM’s affairs. Parties who received it were restricted from using it for other purposes without the court’s leave. Earlier applicants sought to use it in proceedings alleging that an examination of company data breached their rights, including privacy rights. Buckley disputes those allegations and intends to contest those proceedings.
The judge said the applicants who succeeded in the three earlier motions were entitled to costs because Buckley had opposed their applications, increasing the costs of dealing with them. He refused Buckley’s request to delay enforcement until the separate privacy proceedings were resolved. He said there had been no suggestion that paying the costs would impair Buckley’s ability to defend those cases, and that their outcome was not central to the earlier applications for leave.
The costs orders will be stayed while any appeal to the Court of Appeal, or application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, is pending. The judgment expressly states that enforcement is not stayed pending the outcome of the other proceedings.
Webb, described in the judgment as a former senior INM executive, said he had been given the disputed material in April 2018 and had brought proceedings against the company and Buckley. The judgment records that the application for leave was not opposed by INM or the Director of Corporate Enforcement; Buckley formally opposed it but added no new submissions. The court granted leave. Webb did not seek costs, and none were ordered on his motion.
The court also granted Godson leave to use the material in proceedings against Buckley and/or INM. The judgment records that Godson’s solicitor said he had worked as a journalist and later in investment banking and strategic communications, and that his name appeared on a spreadsheet known as the “INM 19”. Buckley formally opposed this application but added nothing to his earlier submissions. The court awarded Godson costs on terms similar to the earlier costs orders, with the hearing date specified as 6 October 2020.