Cases - In Re Nossen's Letter Patent

Record details

Name

In Re Nossen's Letter Patent

Date

[1969]

Citation

1 WLR 638, ChD

Keywords

Expert witness - construction claims

Summary

Costs were incurred on research and experimentation in defending an application for patent infringement, with part of the work being carried out by the defendant's own experts on the defendant's own premises. Lloyd-Jacob J held that if expert assistance was required in the case of litigation by a corporation, it may well be that the corporation's own employees are the most suitable experts to employ and that the direct costs should be recoverable. Although The London Scottish Benefit Society v Chorley was not expressly mentioned, the decision is clearly consistent with Re Nossen's Letter Patent.

'The established practice of the courts has been to disallow any sums claimed in respect of the time spent by the litigant personally in the course of instructing his solicitors. In the case of litigation by a corporation, this has not been strictly applied, for it has been recognised that, if expert assistance is properly required, it may well occur that the corporation's own specialist employees may be the most suitable or convenient experts to employ. If the corporation litigant does decide to provide expert assistance from its own staff ... the taxing master has to determine the appropriate charge to allow. For the outside expert, the normal assessment would be based on current professional standards, and this in suitable cases would include a proper proportion of the overhead costs of running his office or laboratory, that is, of the costs necessarily incurred by him in his capacity as a consultant, as well as a profit element upon such expenditure ... No part of the respondents' expenditure on overheads was occasioned by this litigation and it would be unreasonable to transfer to the applicant the burden of meeting some part of it by reason only of the respondents' decision to prefer the services of their own staff to those of independent experts ... when it is appropriate that a corporate litigant should recover, on a party and party basis, a sum in respect of expert services of this character performed by its own staff, the amount must be restricted to a reasonable sum for the actual and direct costs of the work undertaken.'