Gustavus John & Anor V. Attorney-General (1952)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Practice and Procedure—Costs in case under Public Lands Ordinance—Costs against the Crown—Rules, Order 46 and Order 48.

Facts

Order 46, rule 1 provides:—
“1. Subject to the provisions of any Ordinance and these rules, the costs of and incident to all proceedings in the Supreme Court, including the administration of estates and trusts, shall be in the discretion of the Court: . . . Provided also that the costs shall follow the event unless the Court shall, for good cause, otherwise order ”.
Order 48, rule 1 provides:—

“1. Subject to the provisions of this Order, nothing in these Rules, save as expressly provided, shall affect the procedure or practice in any of the following causes or matters:—

“(b) proceedings in which the Crown is a party or is interested; . .
Land of the appellants was taken; the Crown offered £200 odd as compensation, they claimed over £30,000; the Attorney-General applied to the Court to decide, and the Judge awarded £1,338 3s. 6d. but made no order as to costs.

The owners appealed on the ground that the award was too low (but in fact it was generous) and—this is the point of this report—that they should have had costs. For the Attorney-General it was argued that as the Ordinance was silent on costs the Judge had no jurisdiction to award them, and also that this being a Crown proceeding pursuant to Order 48 of the Rules of Court the Crown was exempted from costs under Order 46.

Held

Where a Court is given power to adjudicate on a matter in dispute, the Court has an implied power to award costs; this was not a Crown proceeding within the meaning of Order 48, and as in the Court below the appellants won much more than had been offered as compensation, they ought to have had their costs.

Appeal allowed on costs.