Cayman Court makes Indemnity and Interim Costs Awards – Cowan v Equis Special LP

Thomas Grant KC acted for the plaintiff in Cowan v Equis Special LP in a 3-day hearing considering applications to amend and for security for costs. Both applications raised interesting procedural issues concerning the Caymanian law of amendment and security.

In a lengthy written judgment ([2024] CIFSd 57) the judge, the Hon Justice Parker, granted the amendment application in large part and rejected the security application. In a subsequent written judgment handed down on 7 August the judge awarded the plaintiff the bulk of his costs of the applications on the indemnity basis, holding that that “Ds’ conduct across these applications was unreasonable to a high degree. The way in which they litigated these summonses was in the Court’s view outside the norm and warrants an Order of indemnity costs.”  This had the important consequence that, applying the decision in The Armand Hammer Foundation Inc v Hammer International Foundation (unreported, 24 April 2024) foreign lawyers’ costs were allowable. An interim payment of $560,000 was ordered.

Thomas led Stuart Cribb of Essex Court Chambers and was instructed by Gareth Murphy, Nicholas Dunne, Brett Basdeo, David Lee and Chaowei Fan of Walkers LLP.

Read the full judgment here