Beth Grossman obtains indemnity costs order against Mitch Winehouse

Sarah Clarke KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge has ordered that Mitch Winehouse should pay the Defendants’ costs of his claims against them on the indemnity basis . 

Naomi Parry, Amy Winehouse’s friend and stylist succeeded in defending claims against her brought in conversion and breach of fiduciary duty in a judgment handed down in April this year. Mr Winehouse had also brought claims in conversion against Amy’s friend Catriona Gourley. Ms Parry was represented by Beth Grossman and Mark Lewis of Patron Law. 

The court took the unusual step of awarding indemnity costs for the entirety of the proceedings against Ms Parry and Ms Gourley. It found that Mr Winehouse’s conduct had been unreasonable to a high degree, and that this had permeated the entirety of the the litigation. The court also found that the defendants and their legal representatives had “conducted this difficult litigation properly and appropriately, despite coming under significant and unreasonable pressure from the claimant and his solicitors”.

Civil practitioners may be interested in the fact that the order for indemnity costs was made in the defendants’ favour, notwithstanding the fact that the first defendant had withdrawn from a mediation. The court accepted the submissions made on Ms Parry’s behalf that the withdrawal had been reasonable because serious and unfounded accusations of impropriety had been made against her and her solicitor which had made mediation impossible. It also found that Mr Winehouse’s conduct demonstrated that mediation would never have been successful.