The Court held that the power to backdate judgments under O 42 r 2(2) RSC or the inherent jurisdiction cannot be exercised to curtail a plaintiff's substantive contractual right to interest that has been pleaded and upheld; the power is confined to overcoming procedural irregularities and does not extend to altering substantive rights, following [name withheld] and Hartley Poynton. The Court awarded indemnity costs against both defendants in both proceedings on the basis that the defences were hopeless and the defendants' conduct was consistent with delay, and separately held that contractual solicitor/client costs clauses in loan instruments provide an independent basis for the court to exercise its costs discretion to order assessment on a solicitor and own client basis. An unpleaded construction argument raised post-judgment as to the application of a higher interest rate following loan extensions was rejected as having no textual foundation and being an impermissible afterthought.
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