Costs

The secretary of state had withdrawn the claimant’s recognition as a producer organisation for the purposes of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The claimant was granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings but also utilised the statutory appeals procedure. The statutory appeal was successful and the judicial review was discontinued by consent. The claimant sought its costs of the judicial review. The judge refused on the ground that the statutory appeal had succeeded on a different ground to that claimed in the judicial review so it could not be said that the claimant would have succeeded in its claim. The Court of Appeal held that although the end result of the statutory appeal had been what the claimant had sought through judicial review, that had not been enough to enable the claimant to be treated as the successful party.