SE Maiden London Ltd v Ruddick & Anor (2018) [2018] EWHC 3684 (QB)

In making an order awarding costs for three planning appeals, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government might have intended that duplicated costs would be paid once rather than three times, but the order stated that common costs incurred in the three appeals should be excluded. A costs judge could not go behind the words of the order and a deputy master had been wrong to assess costs as what the order should have been rather than what it was. The order should have been challenged by way of judicial review.