Nina Unthank reports on costs against interested parties
In John Thomson (Claimant) v Berkhamsted Collegiate School (Defendant) & (1) Ian Thomson (2) Gracinda Thomson (Interested Parties) [2009] EWHC 2374 (QB) Blake J found that a defendant had reasonable prospects of success in obtaining a third party costs order against the parents of the (non minor) claimant. In the underlying claim, the claimant alleged to have been bullied by other pupils while a pupil at the defendant’s school.
The claimant alleged that the school negligently failed to detect and/ or deal with the bullying. On day 11 of the trial, the claimant served a notice of discontinuance. Blake J ordered that the claimant was to pay the defendant’s costs of the action to be the subject of detailed assessment if not agreed.
The claimant, however, by his own case had been rendered unemployed and unemployable as a result of the defendant’s negligence during his school years and thus there was no reasonable prospect that he would be able to meet the defendant’s substantial costs through his
