The claimants Yorkshire Bank, had been involved in litigation with the defendants in respect of four coaches that the claimants had engaged RDM Asset Finance Limited to recover and sell. The claimants at trial had been successful in respect of only one of the coaches, but nonetheless recovered £65,000 together with interest. The claimant therefore claimed its costs. It accepted that the costs would be discounted because it was successful in respect of only one of the four coaches, but argued that the reduction should be minimal because the defendant had unreasonably refused to mediate.

If a claimant is in part successful and is therefore to receive a proportion of its costs in order to reflect the level of success, then should that reduction to the level of costs recoverable be less than it might have been if the defendant had not reasonably refused to mediate?