The High Court has awarded costs against a plaintiff who unsuccessfully opposed an appeal concerning particulars sought in his claim, while allowing him eight weeks to provide the required replies after the court’s order is perfected.
In a ruling delivered on 12 February 2021, Mr Justice Heslin ordered Michael Jeffers to pay the costs of the appeal brought by Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Volkswagen Group Ireland Limited and Volkswagen Bank GmbH, and the Circuit Court application that led to it. The award includes the appellants’ Senior Counsel fees, subject to the usual taxation or adjudication of the amount if the parties cannot agree.
The ruling addressed costs following the judge’s earlier decision of 16 December 2020 on the appeal. That decision required Mr Jeffers to answer particulars numbered 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 28, 29, 40 and 42, which had been sought in an October 2019 notice, and to answer repeated requests made in December 2017. The February ruling did not decide the underlying proceedings or determine their eventual outcome.
The judge said the appellants had been entirely successful on the particulars application, which Mr Jeffers had strenuously opposed. Applying the general principle that costs follow the event, he found it possible to decide liability for costs at this stage without waiting for the trial of the claim.
The plaintiff had argued that the case was novel and that a court decision was needed to guide similar cases. The judge rejected that submission, saying his earlier decision dealt with the specific pleas in Mr Jeffers’s claim. He also considered submissions that Mr Jeffers had provided some replies and that the Circuit Court motion had had a particular outcome.
The ruling records that Mr Jeffers had not informed his legal advisers or the court that he had sold the car in question, a matter said by the defendants to have contributed to the need for particulars. The judge considered that conduct but said it did not justify a different costs order.
The court accepted the plaintiff’s request for eight weeks from perfection of the order to deliver the replies, noting the Covid-19 level 5 restrictions then in force. The costs are to be dealt with under the rules for appeals from the Circuit Court, with the judge’s clarification that the appellants may recover the costs of their Senior Counsel.