February 24, 2021 court of first instance - Orders
Claim No. CFI 051/2017
THE DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRE COURTS
IN THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
BETWEEN
MONTAL
Claimant/Respondent
and
MINALI
Defendant/Appellant
ORDER WITH REASONS OF THE REGISTRAR NOUR HINEIDI
PURSUANT to the Order of the Registrar Nour Hineidi dated 9 December 2020 (the “Order”) in respect of the Defendant’s retrospective extension of time application (the “Application”)
AND UPON the Claimant’s statement of costs filed pursuant to paragraph 6 of the Order
AND UPON the Registry directing the Claimant to provide more detailed submissions setting out how AED 79,820.50 came to be accrued and in particular, how the disbursement of AED 11,339.50 came to be accrued
AND UPON reviewing the Claimant’s submissions sent by way of email on 11 January 2021
AND UPON reviewing the Defendant’s response to the Claimant’s submissions sent by email on 12 January 2021
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. The Claimant’s costs of the Application are summarily assessed in the amount of AED 15,000 (the “Amount”), payable by the Defendant to the Claimant within 14 days from the date of this order.
2. Interest shall accrue on the Amount from 23 February 2021 until the date of full payment.
Issued by:
Nour Hineidi
Registrar
Date of Issue: 24 February 2021
At: 8am
SCHEDULE OF REASONS
1. The amount claimed by the Claimant of AED 79,820.50 (which includes the disbursement of AED 11,339.50) is excessive.
2. The Claimant’s submission in response to the Application was 76 pages long, with the first three pages being a letter and the remaining 73 pages containing copies of cases referred to in the letter. Those cases were simply exhibited to the letter. No particular sections of relevance in those cases were highlighted and so, it seems to me that the extent of the work on the exhibits to the letter was to simply run some searches, very briefly read the cases and annex them to the letter.
3. It would seem quite unreasonable that almost AED 80,000 was accrued by the Claimant’s solicitors and counsel in considering the Application, seeking client instructions and preparing a three-page letter in response to the Application (with some 5 or 6 cases exhibited to the submission).
4. Counsel’s invoice (claimed as a disbursement) was not annexed to the Statement of Costs, nor was it provided by Law Firm at a later stage when it (Law Firm) was given the opportunity to breakdown the amount claimed by its client. On that basis, I am plainly not in a position to award the Claimant a reimbursement of counsel’s fees.
5. On the basis of the above, it would seem to me that awarding AED 15,000 (being approximately 6 hours of fee earner time, at an Associate and Senior Associate level with some brief time set aside for Partner review), is fair and reasonable.
