Costs—Order for costs—Admiralty

Queen’s Bench Division, Commercial Court, Teare J, 30 June 2011

The approach to be followed in determining costs in collision cases is from the line of authorities from Bristol and West Building Society v Evans Bullock  [1996] CLY 695 (Bristol) and in particular the approach in Trustees of Stokes Pension Fund v Western Power Distribution [2005] All ER (D) 107 (Jul) (Stokes Pension), not that of The Toni [1974] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 489 (The Toni).

Nigel Jacobs QC (instructed by Ince & Co) for the claimants. Jeremy Russell QC and Benjamin Coffer (instructed by Thomas Cooper) for the defendants.

The proceedings arose out of a collision between the claimants’ vessel SAMCO EUROPE and the defendants’ vessel MSC PRESTIGE in 2007. In June 2009, the defendants’ solicitors made an offer to settle liability 60:40 in their favour. That offer was described as a “Part 61 and/or Part 36 offer”. On 9 September 2009, the claimants offered to settle liability