Court of Appeal allows review of costs order in multi-party litigation (Dufoo v Tolaini & Ors)

Table of contents

• Practical implications
• Facts
• Contribution to costs
• Court details

Article summary

Dispute Resolution analysis: the Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by a losing party against a costs order in which two other parties who had been aligned to the loser but settled with the winner before trial were not ordered to pay any costs. The judge had relied on the settlement agreement in which it was agreed the two parties would not be pursued for costs. The Court of Appeal considered that this was an error as the agreement was not reason alone not to order costs against the two parties – but should merely have been taken into account when the court was exercising its discretion on costs under CPR Part 44.2. As such, the case was remitted to the judge for him to reconsider in light of the Court of Appeal’s guidance.