ICON DATACOM LTD v. SOLARBRITE ELECTRONICS LTD
The court exercised its discretion by balancing that the plaintiff succeeded on liability but the judgment sum was small relative to the amount claimed and most of the litigation related to liability; the court rejected a rigid pro rata percentage approach and ordered the defendant to pay half of the plaintiff's costs.
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- ICON DATACOM LTD v. SOLARBRITE ELECTRONICS LTD
- Parties
- Plaintiff: Icon Datacom Limited; Defendant: Solarbrite Electronics Limited
- Court
- Court of First Instance
- Jurisdiction
- Hong Kong
- Judgment Date
- 1 March 2011
- Case Number
- HCA985/2005
- Procedural Posture
- Civil Action (court of First Instance) / Decision on Costs
- Outcome
- Defendant ordered to pay half of the plaintiff's costs.
- Legal Topics
- Costs of Litigation, Proportionality of Costs, Assessment of Costs
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
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Parties
Icon Datacom Limited
Plaintiff
Solarbrite Electronics Limited
Defendant
Procedural Posture
Civil Action (court of First Instance) / Decision on Costs
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether plaintiff was entitled to full costs despite a relatively small judgment sum compared with amount claimed
- 2 Whether costs should be awarded strictly pro rata to the percentage of the claim recovered
- 3 Appropriate exercise of the court's discretion on costs given the relative time spent on liability and quantum
Ratio Decidendi
The court exercised its discretion by balancing that the plaintiff succeeded on liability but the judgment sum was small relative to the amount claimed and most of the litigation related to liability; the court rejected a rigid pro rata percentage approach and ordered the defendant to pay half of the plaintiff's costs.
Court Disposition
Defendant ordered to pay half of the plaintiff's costs.
Orders
- Defendant to pay half of the plaintiff's costs.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
1 paragraphs
bjbj HCA985/2005 IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE ACTION NO. 985 OF 2005 -------------------------- BETWEEN ICON DATACOM LIMITED Plaintiff and SOLARBRITE ELECTRONICS LIMITED Defendant ------------------------- Before : Deputy High Court Judge Burrell in Court Date of Written Submissions on Costs : 22 February 2011 Date of Decision on Costs : 1 March 2011 -------------------------------------------- D E C I S I O N O N C O S T S -------------------------------------------- AUTONUMOUT have now read and considered the parties written submissions on costs. AUTONUMOUT In a case such as this the court s task is ultimately a balancing act. The plaintiff is not entitled to its costs in full because of the relatively small amount of the judgment sum in relation to the amount claimed. AUTONUMOUT However the plaintiff had to come to court and was successful on liability. An approach suggested by the defence is that, in percentage terms, the plaintiff should be awarded the same percentage in costs as they succeeded on the claim. For example, if $1 million is awarded in a $2 million claim they should get 50% of their costs. I do not think this is a sensible approach either generally or in this particular case. AUTONUMOUT Looking at the matter as a whole and bearing in mind that most of the case concerned liability issues and that quantum issues took a relatively small proportion of the time and money spent, I order the defendant to pay half of the plaintiff s costs. (M.P. Burrell) Deputy High Court Judge Mr. C. Yuen, instructed by Messrs So, Lung & Associated, for the Plaintiff Mr. Abraham Chan, instructed by Messrs Robin Bridge & John Liu, for the Defendant PAGE - PAGE A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V 1udk 1udk (#p# &`#$ H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V "(#@ABB "@AB "(#@ABB [Content_Types].xml Iw}, $yi} _rels/.rels theme/theme/themeManager.xml K Y, sQ}# theme/theme/theme1.xml w toc'v )I`n 3Vq%'#q x}r :\TZaG I u3 L+M2 e\O* $*c? )6-r IqbJ#x ,AGm T[XF64 E)`# R>QD =(K& =al- 4vfa 0%M0 theme/theme/_rels/themeManager.xml.rels 5 6?$Q K(M&$R(.1 [Content_Types].xmlPK _rels/.relsPK theme/theme/themeManager.xmlPK theme/theme/theme1.xmlPK theme/theme/_rels/themeManager.xml.relsPK <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <a:clrMap xmlns:a="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/main" bg1="lt1" tx1="dk1" bg2="lt2" tx2="dk2" accent1="accent1" accent2="accent2" accent3="accent3" accent4="accent4" accent5="accent5" accent6="accent6" hlink="hlink" folHlink="folHlink"/> z^5 v 7Bo4B 6^j@ j74fJUl vZ i 4Rq.5 t(Mt r$a~"p vZ i z^5 7Bo4 j74f r$a~ JUjv & 2@ 6K2* & 6" CACV Jeannie MY MokSo ABC.dot setup Microsoft Office Word Judiciary CACV Title Microsoft Office Word 97-2003 Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8