Successful appeal leads to entitlement of costs for plaintiff in interlocutory application

The Court of Appeal has affirmed the plaintiff's entitlement to costs for both the appeal and the original High Court motion, rejecting the defendant's request to reserve costs until the final determination of the proceedings. The Court found no exceptional circumstances to depart from the default position that the successful party in an interlocutory application is entitled to costs. This decision follows the Court's provisional view that the plaintiff, having been entirely successful in the appeal, should be awarded costs. The defendant's argument that it was not possible to justly adjudicate upon the issue of costs at this stage was not accepted, as the Court determined the issue of whether a fair trial was possible due to the passage of time to be a discrete matter, separate from the ultimate outcome of the proceedings.