A Khan Design Limited v Stephen Horsley & Another [2014] EWHC 3019 (IPEC)

21 July 2014

Lindsay Lane appeared on behalf of Stephen Horsley in an application to strike out claims for damages and costs made by A Khan Design Limited following a design right trial.
Applying the principles in Denton v White, Mr Baldwin QC, struck out the Claimant’s claims for costs and damages on the ground of its failure to comply with the order made following trial to serve written submissions on costs and elect between an inquiry and account for over a year.
In relation to the failure to comply with the order to serve costs submissions, the Judge held that this was very serious since he had now forgotten the detail of the litigation and been deprived, by the lapse of time, of the information the Court was in possession of at the time. The fact that the Claimant had not been able to obtain funds from its insurer was not a good explanation for the delay in the absence of evidence that it could not put the solicitors in funds itself. The Claimants chose to cause this delay without good reason. In relation to the failure to elect between an inquiry and an account, the position was similar. The litigation had not been conducted efficiently and there had been a complete disregard for the order made. Accordingly, to allow the claims to be pursued now would be an abuse of process.
Lindsay Lane was instructed by DMB Law.

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