Friis & Anor v Colburn, Court of Appeal - Chancery Division, May 01, 2009, [2009] EWHC 903 (Ch)

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Friis & Anor v Colburn, Court of Appeal - Chancery Division, May 01, 2009, [2009] EWHC 903 (Ch)

Neutral Citation Number: [2009] EWHC 903 (Ch)

Case No: HC08C02673

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

CHANCERY DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 01/05/2009

Before :

MR JUSTICE PETER SMITH

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Between :

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Andrew Popplewell QC & Daniel Jowell (instructed by Skadden) for the Respondents

Sue Prevezer QC & Matthew Bunting (instructed by Quinn Emanuel) for the Applicant

Hearing dates: Tuesday 31st March 2009

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JudgmentPeter Smith J :

INTRODUCTION

1. This is an application by the Defendant (Ms Colburn) pursuant to CPR 11 for an order staying or dismissing these proceedings on the basis that the Court does not have jurisdiction to determine the claim, alternatively, that it should not exercise its discretion to determine it.

2. These kind of hearings are meant to be dealt with quite robustly by the Courts. In this case the hearing attracted 5 lever arch files of documents followed by the (almost traditional) disregard of the vast majority of the documents. Lengthy skeleton arguments were submitted and the hearing lasted a full day. Further the costs (as will appear further in this judgment) can only be described as horrendous. In this case the Claim Form was issued as long ago as 22nd September 2008. The order under challenge that of Master Teverson was made on 29th October 2008. The only activity in the action since then so far as I am aware is the Defendant's application issued on 19th December 2008 to set aside the original order.

3. The Claimants had incurred £300,000 worth of costs apparently before dealing with the present application. Their ...

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