Dominic Regan considers the nail that cost a third of a million pounds & other matters
One of the greatest mysteries of the moment is how the new proportionality test, designed by Jackson LJ to ensure that reasonableness of expenditure shall trump reasonableness, is going to work in practice. It is not difficult to extract from the law reports examples of disputes where the numbers are eye-watering.
Nailing it
A nail whacked by an errant workman penetrated a pipe in the dining room at Epsom College. While the damages came to about £21,000, the costs of the claimant, including the success fee (fondly remembered as money from heaven), ran in at £330,000. See Epsom College v Pierse Contracting [2011] EWCA Civ 1449, [2011] All ER (D) 153 (Dec).
An even more modest claim drove Lord Justice Ward to the verge of implosion. In Egan v Motor Services (Bath) Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 1002, [2008] 1 All ER 1156n, Mr Egan rejected an Audi car which the garage had sold to him. Somehow, a modest dispute (and one which today would be a small claim),
