The deputy chancellor determined Hounslow London Borough Council's application for costs following a formal complaint to the bishop about the chancellor's conduct at the hearing at which he refused the Parochial Church Council (PCC)'s application for an injunction ([2016] ECC Lon 1; see p 383). The deputy chancellor held that, by any reasonable standard of interpretation, the PCC's application for an injunction was ill-judged, ill-conceived, ill-advised and ill-prepared. In short, it was properly characterised as unreasonable. The deputy chancellor held that arguments by analogy with more conventional faculty petitions – where, following examination of the issues, a petition fails and objectors succeed, with the court expecting both parties thereafter to meet their own legal expenses – did not assist in this case. It would quite simply be unjust to the Council not to order the PCC to pay the costs in this case. The PCC was ordered to pay the Council's reasonable costs assessed at £10,734 and the court costs. [David Lamming]
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