News: High Court overturns Costs Order against Licensing Authority
- Date: 27/01/2012
- Source: Poppleston Allen
- Author/Solicitor: Andy Grimsey
The Administrative Court has overturned a partial Costs Order made against a Licensing Authority by the Magistrates' Court on Appeal. The Appellant, a supermarket, had appealed against conditions imposed on its licence. The District Judge held that the Licensing Authority had been wrong to impose the conditions it had, but instead of granting a licence without any conditions (as requested by the Appellant) he imposed less stringent conditions, further ordering that the Licensing Authority should pay a proportion of the Appellant's costs.
The Licensing Authority asked the Magistrates' Court to state a case; this was refused on the basis that the application was frivolous.
The Administrative Court held firstly that the Authority's request to state a case could not in any way be described as frivolous. It went on to state that the starting and default position where a party opposing a decision of a public authority had been successful was that:-
1. There should be no Order for Costs, and
2. Financial prejudice to a successful private party sufficient to depart from that default position required substantial financial hardship.
As the Authority had not acted in bad faith, unreasonably or improperly, and further that the District Judge had not made any finding that the supermarket would suffer financial prejudice or hardship if no Order for Costs was made, the District Judge had been wrong to order costs against the Licensing Authority, even a partial Costs Order.
R [on the application of Newham London Borough Council] (Claimant) v Stratford Magistrates' Court (Defendant) and Mehmet Saron (Interested Party) [2012] QBD (Admin) 26/1/12.
Please note that this report is based upon a précis of the Judgment
For more information please contact Andy Grimsey
