R v North and East Devon Health Authority ex parte Pamela Coughlan Secretary of State for Health (Intervenor) Royal College of Nursing (Intervenor)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD WOOLF, MR |
| Judgment Date | 16 July 1999 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | QBCOF 1999/0110/4 |
In the Matter of an Application for Judicial Review
and
and
[1999] EWCA Civ J0716-7
The Master of the Rolls
(Lord Woolf)
Lord Justice Mummery
Lord Justice Sedley
QBCOF 1999/0110/4
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION (Crown Office List)
(MR JUSTICE HIDDEN)
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London WC2
MR R GORDON QC with MR T WARD and MISS J RICHARDS (Instructed by Messrs T V Edwards, London, E1 4TP) appeared on behalf of the Appellant.
MR N PLEMING QC and MR S KOVATS (Instructed by the Treasury Solicitor, London, SW1H 9JS) appeared on behalf of the Secretary of State.
MR T GOUDIE and MISS S WARD (Instructed by Messrs Bevan Ashford, Bristol, BS1 4TT) appeared on behalf of the Respondent
MR P HAVERS and MR K STERN (Instructed by the Royal College of Nursing Legal Dept, London, W1M OAB) appeared on behalf of the Royal College of Nursing.
Friday 16 July 1999
We have given careful consideration to the arguments as to the order for costs to be made on this appeal. An appeal such as this is an extremely expensive process and, although a party may succeed generally on an appeal, in my judgment it is important that the court looks at what has happened on the various issues which have been raised. If a party has been successful on some issues and unsuccessful on others, it may well be that the appropriate order in all the circumstances is that the party who has generally been successful should not recover all their costs. This is to encourage parties to consider very carefully whether it is right to incur the costs of advancing a particular argument.
This case undoubtedly does not fall within the generality of cases. It is not a case where only the parties themselves are affected by the outcome. It has general significance which meant that it was very important that the difficult issues were to be considered in full. For example, we heard argument from the Secretary of State where that argument would normally not be necessary because there was a community of...
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