In the matter of an application by Bronagh Bowden as personal representative of the estate of Liam Holden (deceased) for Judicial Review (Appellant)

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2024/1001

Parties

Appellant(s)

Bronagh Bowden

Respondent(s)

The Department of Justice in Northern Ireland

Ministry of Defence

Issue

Whether the term ‘compensation’ in ss.133-133B of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (the “1988 Act”) includes legal costs and whether an implied power exists to pay legal costs under the relevant statutory regime that is not capped by the maximum amount of ‘compensation’ that can be paid out under the statutory scheme.

Facts

In April 1973, the Appellant was convicted of the (then) capital offence of murder and was sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to one of life imprisonment. In 1989, after serving 17 years in custody, the Appellant was released on life licence. The Appellant’s convictions were quashed on 21 June 2012. The Appellant pursued an application for compensation for miscarriage of justice under s133 of the 1988 Act. On 12 November 2015, the Respondent wrote to the Appellant accepting that the Appellant was entitled to compensation under s133 of the 1988 Act. On 23 March 2017, the Appellant accepted an award of the statutory maximum compensation of £1 million under s133 of the 1988 Act. This award represented full and final settlement of the Appellant’s application with the Respondent for a miscarriage of justice. Subsequently, an independent assessor (the “IA”) assessed the Appellant’s reasonable legal and other expenses incurred by the application as £120,171.12. The Respondent declined to pay these costs. The Appellant brought an application for judicial review of the Respondent’s decision not to pay these legal costs, which was dismissed by the High Court of Justice of Northern Ireland. The judge concluded that there is no power to pay costs over and above the statutory maximum compensatory figure. On appeal, the Court of Appeal accepted that there was an implied power to make a payment for costs in the statutory scheme, but that this was subject to the cap of £1 million. The Appellant’s appeal was dismissed and the Court of Appeal subsequently refused the Appellant’s application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Appellant now appeals directly to the Supreme Court. The original applicant to these proceedings, Liam Holden, has died since the commencement of these proceedings. The proceedings have been continued by his personal representative Ms Bronagh Bowden. The Court of Appeal joined the Ministry of Defence as a Notice Party by order of 19 March 2024. The MOD does not adopt a position in respect of this appeal.

Date of issue

31 October 2024

Case origin

PTA

Appeal

Justices

Lord Briggs

Lord Stephens

Lady Rose

Permission to Appeal

Permission to Appeal decision date

27 January 2025

Permission to Appeal decision

Refused

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