LM-2023-000035 - [2025] EWHC 2168 (Comm)

I am invited to exercise the power set out at CPR 44.2(6)(g) to award interest on costs. The Claimants say the interest rate should be 1 percentage point over US Prime, to reflect the fact that the Claimant’s main currency is US Dollars. In my view the correct rate to apply is 1 point over the Bank of England base rate.

I accept the Claimant operates in US Dollars and is likely therefore to need to convert US Dollars to Sterling to pay its legal costs. However, the true and operative reason for that lies in the contract. The Mandate provided that “the courts of London” would have non-exclusive jurisdiction over the dispute and that the laws of England and Wales would apply. As the Claimant was responsible for drafting the Mandate (and even if it had not drafted it), it must be taken to have made a deliberate and conscious choice to effectively require litigation take place in England (where they chose to issue) with the almost certain consequence that legal costs would be paid in pounds.

I am satisfied in those circumstances that the proper rate to apply is the Bank of England Base Rate plus 1 percentage point. Interest will apply from the date costs were paid.