Eeles (a child, by his mother and litigation friend) v Cobham Hire Services Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 204, [2009] All ER (D) 144 (Mar)
Where a judge is considering whether or not to make an interim payment in a case in which the trial judge may wish to make a periodical payments order, his first task is to assess the likely amount of the final judgment, leaving out of account the heads of future loss which the trial judge might wish to deal with by Periodical Payment Orders.
It will usually be appropriate to include accommodation costs in the expected capital award. The interim payment will be a reasonable proportion of that assessment, but a reasonable proportion may well be a high proportion, provided that the assessment has been conservative. For this part of the process, the judge need have no regard as to what the claimant intends to do with the money.
The judge will be entitled to include in his assessment of the likely amount of the final judgment additional elements of future loss where he can confidently predict that the trial judge will wish to award a larger capital sum than that covered by general and special damages, interest and accommodation costs alone.
Before taking such a course, the judge must be satisfied by evidence that there is a real need for the interim payment requested.
