This judgment is being handed down in private on 2 March 2012. It consists of 70 paragraphs and has been signed and dated by the judge.
The Judge hereby gives leave for it to be reported in its anonymised form as Fisher Meredith v JH and PH (Financial Remedy: Appeal: Wasted Costs).
The judgment is being distributed on the strict understanding that in any report no person other than the advocates or the solicitors instructing them may be identified by name or location.
FAMILY DIVISION
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
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Fisher Meredith LLP |
Appellant |
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J H |
1st Respondent |
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P H |
2nd Respondent |
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Mr Geraint Jones QC & Mr Philip Perrins (instructed by Rainer Hughes) for the Respondents
Hearing dates: 16 February 2012
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Crown Copyright ©
Mr Justice Mostyn:
This is the approved anoymised version of this judgment. The anonymisation has been agreed between by the parties and approved by me.
Narrative of the background facts
"I am informed by my uncle that various properties previously owned by my family were acquired on or around May 1998 as part of an agreed property sale agreement effected between the administrators of HMRC and court appointed receivers (consent of the High Court obtained) with the benefit of loans from my uncles in Canada. My uncle was also finishing his custodial sentence and was not released from prison until 16 August 1999. I believe that I was made a shareholder and. a director of [the Company] due to the convictions of my uncle. At this time it was my uncle S H who was principally running the company and the shares were put into my name purely as a nominee."
The uncle referred to is AH.
"As you may be aware the final hearing in our client's application for financial relief is listed at the above court on the above date.
It is part of our client's case that the shareholding currently held by your wife, P H is to be rightly attributed to your nephew, the 1st Respondent J H. We note that you are not being called as a witness by the 1st Respondent despite the nature of his evidence on the issue. If you wish to consider intervening in the proceedings and seeking permission from the court to file your own evidence in these proceedings relating to that issue that must be a matter for you to consider but we should be grateful to receive notice of any intention to do so.
You may wish to consult your own independent legal advisors elsewhere before responding."
"MR BENNETT: This was supposed to be the final hearing of two applications by my client, who is the wife. Firstly, to set aside a transfer of shares in the [Company], which was transferred by the husband to his aunt, P H, the second respondent in these proceedings, at some point in 2008 or 2009, and then the final hearing of her application against him for ancillary relief. … I say "supposed to be the final hearing" because in the days leading to this trial we were provided with 125 pages of additional information, and a clarified position within Mr Jones's skeleton argument, which means that I have to accept that this hearing ought to be adjourned. Why do I say that? It is because Mr Jones's point is that, even if you were to agree with our application, to set aside the transaction and transfer these shares back from PH to the husband, that would not affect the beneficial ownership of that shareholding, because it is held for persons who are yet to be specified."
"Sir, we say it is a proper case for, albeit to be adjourned, to be adjourned on payment of costs. Other than that what we would propose by way of an order, that it be adjourned."
"2. The matter that the court is being asked to decide now arises from an application by all parties for an adjournment of this final hearing, notwithstanding that the proceedings have been pending for some 18 months, and this hearing, no doubt, fixed for at least the last six months, if not longer than that.
…
15. Mr Jones, on behalf of the second respondent, and Mr Perrins, on behalf of the first respondent, agreed to the adjournment but on the basis that it must be the wife who pays the costs thrown away by this adjournment. They both further seek a wasted costs order against the solicitors instructed on behalf of the wife for the very reasons to which I have already referred."
i) By 27 May 2011 R2 was to set out in a list the persons whom she believed were the beneficial owners of the Company.
ii) By 3 June 2011 H was to signify whether he accepted that list.
iii) W was entitled to apply on paper to District Judge Bassett-Cross to join those persons whom she believed were beneficial owners of the shareholding 28 days after receipt of the list and H's response thereto.
iv) Upon joinder W was to serve points of claim and H was to serve points of defence.
v) The preliminary issue was to be fixed with a time estimate of three days.
vi) W was to pay the costs of H and R2 "thrown away by reason of the adjournment", such order not to be enforced without a further order of the court (as she was in receipt of legal aid).
vii) W's solicitors FM were to show cause at a hearing to be fixed with a time estimate of 2 hours why they should not pay the costs "thrown away by reason of the adjournment".
i) W's solicitors FM were to pay the (standard) costs thrown away by reason of the adjournment of the final hearing fixed for 23 May 2011 together with the costs of the wasted costs hearing on 20 July 2011.
ii) FM were to pay £15,000 on account within 21 days.
iii) R2, having given her list of names by email on 11 July 2011, was to supply addresses and certain other information by 28 July 2011. H was to supply his acceptance or non-acceptance by 28 July 2011.
iv) FM's application for permission to appeal was refused.
Some preliminary observations on the sequence of events
The law concerning wasted costs applications
(6) In any proceedings mentioned in subsection (1), the court may disallow, or (as the case may be) order the legal or other representative concerned to meet, the whole of any wasted costs or such part of them as may be determined in accordance with rules of court.
(7) In subsection (6), "wasted costs" means any costs incurred by a party—
(a) as a result of any improper, unreasonable or negligent act or omission on the part of any legal or other representative or any employee of such a representative; or
(b) which, in the light of any such act or omission occurring after they were incurred, the court considers it is unreasonable to expect that party to pay.
"Improper, unreasonable or negligent
… In adopting an untechnical approach to the meaning of negligence in this context, we would however wish firmly to discountenance any suggestion that an applicant for a wasted costs order under this head need prove anything less than he would have to prove in an action for negligence
…
Causation
As emphasised in Re a Barrister (wasted costs order) (No 1 of 1991) [1992] 3 All ER 429, [1993] QB 293, the court has jurisdiction to make a wasted costs order only where the improper, unreasonable or negligent conduct complained of has caused a waste of costs and only to the extent of such wasted costs. Demonstration of a causal link is essential. Where the conduct is proved but no waste of costs is shown to have resulted, the case may be one to be referred to the appropriate disciplinary body or the legal aid authorities, but it is not one for exercise of the wasted costs jurisdiction.
….
Discretion
It was submitted, in our view correctly, that the jurisdiction to make a wasted costs order is dependent at two stages on the discretion of the court. The first is at the stage of initial application, when the court is invited to give the legal representative an opportunity to show cause. This is not something to be done automatically or without careful appraisal of the relevant circumstances. The costs of the inquiry as compared with the costs claimed will always be one relevant consideration. This is a discretion, like any other, to be exercised judicially, but judges may not infrequently decide that further proceedings are not likely to be justified. The second discretion arises at the final stage. Even if the court is satisfied that a legal representative has acted improperly, unreasonably or negligently and that such conduct has caused the other side to incur an identifiable sum of wasted costs, it is not bound to make an order, but in that situation it would of course have to give sustainable reasons for exercising its discretion against making an order."
"The court should not make an order against a practitioner precluded by legal professional privilege from advancing his full answer to the complaint made against him without satisfying itself that it is in all the circumstances fair to do so. This reflects the old rule, applicable in civil and criminal proceedings alike, that a party should not be condemned without an adequate opportunity to be heard. Even if the court were able properly to be sure that the practitioner could have no answer to the substantive complaint, it could not fairly make an order unless satisfied that nothing could be said to influence the exercise of its discretion. Only exceptionally could these exacting conditions be satisfied. Where a wasted costs order is sought against a practitioner precluded by legal professional privilege from giving his full answer to the application, the court should not make an order unless, proceeding with extreme care, it is (a) satisfied that there is nothing the practitioner could say, if unconstrained, to resist the order and (b) that it is in all the circumstances fair to make the order."
i) R2 and H have the burden of showing that FM failed to act with the competence reasonably expected of ordinary members of the solicitors' profession. R2 and H have to prove as much as they would have to prove in an action for negligence against FM.
ii) The demonstration by R2 and H of a causal link between FM's conduct and the wasted costs, and only to the extent of the wasted costs, is essential.
iii) Even if these conditions are satisfied H and R2 have to persuade the court to exercise its discretion to make a wasted costs order.
iv) Where the respondent lawyers are precluded by legal professional privilege from advancing a full answer to the complaint made against them the court should only make an order for wasted costs exceptionally where (a) it is satisfied that there is nothing the lawyers could say, if unconstrained, to resist the order and (b) it is in all the circumstances fair to make the order.
The allegation faced by FM
"R2 contends that no reasonably competent solicitor could possibly have thought that the real issues in the case could be dealt with properly on behalf of [W], without the beneficial owners of the 334 shares being parties, so that they would be bound by any decision in the case."
"[35] Mr Brett makes the valid complaint that this issue has never been properly defined, pleaded or particularised. At no stage since the first appointment has this discrete issue been the subject of any case management, notwithstanding that the parties have been before the court on numerous occasions.
[36] In my opinion, it is essential in every instance where a dispute arises about the ownership of property in ancillary relief proceedings between a spouse and a third party, that the following things should ordinarily happen:
(i) The third party should be joined to the proceedings at the earliest opportunity;
(ii) Directions should be given for the issue to be fully pleaded by points of claim and points of defence;
(iii) Separate witness statements should be directed in relation to the dispute; and
(iv) The dispute should be directed to be heard separately as a preliminary issue, before the financial dispute resolution (FDR).
[37] In this way, the parties will know at an early stage whether or not the property in question falls within the dispositive powers of the court and a meaningful FDR can take place. It also means that the expensive attendance of the third party for the entire duration of the trial can be avoided. It is a great pity that none of these steps took place in this case. Had they happened, I believe that a great deal of the costs would have been saved."
"[23] The deputy judge recorded, at para [35], the complaint of counsel in that case that the issues had never been 'properly defined, pleaded or particularised' and went on to suggest, at para [36], how such issues should in future be handled by way of appropriate case management. I am sympathetic to the approach being suggested by the deputy judge, though I would not wish to be quite so prescriptive as he appears to be. Vigorous judicial case management in such cases is vital, but the appropriate directions to be given in any particular case must reflect the case managing judge's appraisal of how, given the forensic realities of the particular case, the issues can best be resolved in the most just, effective and expeditious manner."
[56] Just as the starting point where there is sole legal ownership is sole beneficial ownership, the starting point where there is joint legal ownership is joint beneficial ownership. The onus is upon the person seeking to show that the beneficial ownership is different from the legal ownership. So in sole ownership cases it is upon the non-owner to show that he has any interest at all. In joint ownership cases, it is upon the joint owner who claims to have other than a joint beneficial interest.
See also para 61.
"Since the advancement of loans and the making of gifts have been common transactions amongst mankind for many centuries, there is a remarkable paucity of authorities as to on whom the burden lies of distinguishing the one type of transaction from the other."
"There being no blood relationship, no husband-and-wife, no father-and-child, no adoptive-parent and adopted-child relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, counsel for the defendant was forced to concede that in those circumstances, which accordingly gave rise to no presumption of advancement, the house must prima facie be regarded as being held by the defendant by way of a resulting trust for the benefit of the plaintiff. But, although that is conceded, it is nevertheless said that it is for the plaintiff to prove that the money was advanced by way of a loan and not as a gift.
…
Accordingly, one is really driven back to consider this matter without the assistance of authority; and, being so unassisted, I ask myself what is to be inferred as to the nature of the transaction when the simple payment of money is proved or admitted between strangers. I entirely agree with Willmer LJ that on that bald state of affairs, proof of payment imports a prima facie obligation to repay the money in the absence of circumstances from which a presumption of advancement can or may arise."
"I reiterate my view that if a third party is aware that there are ancillary relief proceedings between husband and wife, and wishes to make a claim to the subject matter of those proceedings, then, in my opinion, the only proper procedure, in order to avoid the spectre of inconsistent judgments, and to ensure that all disputes are resolved in one fell swoop, is for him to apply to intervene in the ancillary relief proceedings."
"19. I have no doubt that, ordinarily, intervention, if it is accepted, is much the best means of achieving a decision on all material matters in a manner which binds not only the spouses but also any third party. If that can be achieved and if it is truly necessary, rather than simply an exercise in finding out whether there is a claim elsewhere, I am sure that that ought to be undertaken and that is what the cases to which the judge referred, including TL v ML (Ancillary Relief: Claim against assets of extended family) [2006] 1 FLR 1263 and Rossi v Rossi [2007] 1 FLR 790, say.
…
22. It is plain to my mind, equally, that Mostyn J, in the passage which I have cited, in his reference to "the only appropriate procedure" was not to be taken as having meant any universal proposition for every case. He undoubtedly meant that it was the only proper course, as he saw it, in this case, given the advanced stage of the proceedings.
23. Accepting as I do the general proposition that it is highly desirable that issues between a third party and spouses should be resolved at the same time as the issue between the spouses, there will be some cases in which it simply cannot be done and there will be others where it could be done only at the cost of a price which ought not to have to be paid."
"11. Turning to the matter that I have to decide this afternoon, and that is whether there should or should not be an adjournment, it is quite clear to me that the matter has to be adjourned. Whilst the wife still contends that this husband and/or the second respondent has a legal and beneficial interest in these shares, the fact of the matter is that the proper procedure with regard to bringing those other parties who have a beneficial interest before the court has not been proceeded with. I do not disagree at all with Mr Jones's submissions on behalf of the second respondent in respect of this matter.
12. It is a woeful disregard for normal procedures and it is as if those who are instructed on behalf of the wife have no regard to the procedures of the court, and particularly when those have been so clearly set out in the judgment of Mr Nicholas Mostyn QC, as he then was, in TL v ML as long ago as 2005. They knew in 2009 that the beneficial interest in these shares was asserted not to be held by the husband, and not by the aunt, the second respondent.
13. No question, as I understand it, was asked of them as to who then holds the beneficial interest. No application was made to this court for directions in respect of that, and the joining of the beneficiaries, or indeed for the husband to disclose those beneficiaries. As Mr Jones has pointed out, an application could have been made in the Chancery Division for a representation order, as indeed it could be, I understand from Mr Jones, in this Division. None of that was done until some four weeks ago when a letter was written, both to the company itself, for reasons that escape me, and also to one of the known beneficiaries. I say 'known because that is in the evidence, it is quite clear, and it is in the wife's evidence that the company was run by this gentleman. She knew right from day one.
14. What is also surprising because an application was made by Her Honour Judge Hughes in 2010 for the company to be joined to the proceedings, which she rightly dismissed. No thought seems to have been given to how they were going to ensure that any order they were seeking from this court could be enforceable against third parties who were not parties to these proceedings
…
16. It is, in my judgment, quite astounding that this aspect of the application was not properly attended to. It is exactly the same position where you have to serve notice in Form A on mortgagees. It just seems to me to be unbelievable that this has not been picked up and dealt with properly prior to this.
17. Therefore, it seems to me, there can be no question that the adjournment is caused solely by reason of this. Obviously consequential directions will need to be given to ensure that this matter is better prepared before it comes back before the court. That must be on the basis that the wife must pay the costs thrown away by the first and second respondent by reason of the adjournment. She being in receipt of public funding, those costs obviously will have been to be the subject of a detailed assessment, and cannot be enforced without further leave of the court.
18. In so far as the wasted costs order is concerned, I have to give the solicitors the opportunity of being represented before this court. Of course I give that. It will be apparent from all that I have said, that I think they have a very hard hill to climb, unless there is something that I have not been told today."
"8. The solicitors Fisher Meredith, have the conduct of this application. They have a duty of care to their client. They also have a duty to the court to be able to put forward and ensure that the proceedings proceed in an orderly and proper fashion to enable the court to adjudicate upon the matters they have invoked the jurisdiction of the court. It seems to me that it is an unhelpful argument to suggest -- because this is a matrimonial suit -- that each party is the Applicant and is seeking orders from the court and that by reason of the overriding objective, as I have already indicated, that the parties should provide evidence to support the other party's case. There is a very simple tried and tested method in this Division of discovery -- which I personally disagree with -- but that is by way of questionnaires, because the questionnaires are usually lengthy, do not assist the court in large part, but the fundamental question must be asked and that question, as I have said before, has not been asked, and if it were asked and not answered, the court has other powers whereby an application could be made for the alleged beneficiaries to attend on a production appointment, and professionals can be also equally ordered and, of course, there is the method of an oral examination of third parties and things like that. None of that was done in this case.
9. But my fundamental point is that the adjournment arises solely out of the failure to ask that question throughout the lengthy proceedings, and that resulted directly in the adjournment which I granted, and it seems to me that there can be no question other than that the wasted costs order should be made, because I am not satisfied from the evidence that [the solicitor with conduct of the case] has supplied that the negligence is anybody else's but his. There is no reference to client's instructions or anything like that, it is down to him not asking that question and that is my judgment."
i) Given the extraordinary nature of the heavily redacted 123 pages of documents received only two working days before the hearing, an adjournment would probably have been needed anyway, not least so that W could be allowed to see a sufficiency of the documents so they actually made sense to her and her advisers. In this regard the responsibility for the wasted costs must fall on R2.
ii) I am not prepared to accept that the adjournment was at the sole behest of W. Rather, as the District Judge accurately found, it was a joint decision.
iii) We cannot know what passed between Mr Bennett, FM and W which led to the decision to seek an adjournment, as it is covered by legal professional privilege. For all we know W may have insisted on it in the teeth of advice to press on. Therefore following Medcalf v Mardell, it is impossible to rely on that decision for the purposes of deciding if FM were negligent.
Postscript; the Family Procedure Rules 2010
It should be recorded that with effect from 6 April 2011 the rules position will change with the introduction of the new Family Procedure Rules 2010 in place of the existing Family Proceedings Rules 1991. The 2010 rules remove the default application to family proceedings of the RSC. They are plainly modelled generally on the CPR, and include a re-statement (in slightly different terms) of the overriding objective, but the CPR continue not to apply directly to family proceedings. After 6 April 2011, the provisions of RSC O11 and O15 r 6 will therefore not be applicable to a case such as the present, and nor will CPR 19.2 or 6.36 and its associated Practice Direction. It appears that the new 2010 Rules contemplate that the joinder of parties be accomplished according to the broad discretionary case management powers contained in the overriding objective, viz: 1.4(2) (b)(ii) which makes clear that that objective includes the duty to decide an early stage who should be a party to the proceedings; see also 4.1(3)(o) and Part 18. Since the 2010 rules say nothing about the principles on which joinder of third parties (onshore or offshore) should be exercised, it may be that courts will have recourse by analogy to the principles contained in CPR 19.2 and 6.36 with its Practice Direction 6B. The final resolution of that issue must however await a decision on the point.
i) whose presence before the Court is necessary to ensure that all matters in dispute in the cause or matter may be effectually and completely determined and adjudicated upon, or
ii) between whom and any party to the cause or matter there may exist a question or issue arising out of or relating to or connected with any relief or remedy claimed in the cause or matter which in the opinion of the Court it would be just and convenient to determine as between him and that party as well as between the parties to the cause or matter.
"The court may order a person to be added as a new party if –
(a) it is desirable to add the new party so that the court can resolve all the matters in dispute in the proceedings; or
(b) there is an issue involving the new party and an existing party which is connected to the matters in dispute in the proceedings, and it is desirable to add the new party so that the court can resolve that issue."
LATER
"[12] …To my mind, however, such conduct would need to be unreasonable to a high degree; unreasonable in this context certainly does not mean merely wrong or misguided in hindsight. An indemnity costs order made under Pt 44 (unlike one made under Pt 36) does, I think, carry at least some stigma. It is of its nature penal rather than exhortatory. The indemnity costs order made on the principal appeal in McPhilemy's case was certainly of that character. We held ([2001] 4 All ER 361 at [29]) that the appeal involved an abuse of process on the footing that 'to have permitted the defendants to argue their case on perversity must inevitably have brought the administration of justice into disrepute among right thinking people'."
Note 1 I have been informed since this judgment was distributed in draft that a document containing a representation to this effect was provided on 11 July 2011. [Back] Note 2 Since this judgment was distributed in draft I have become aware of the proposed amendments to the FPR 2010 to take effect on 6 April 2012 which will insert at rule 9.26B(1) a rule which is indistinguishable from CPR rule 19.2(2). [Back]