Claim No. ENF 271/2025

THE DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRE COURTS

IN THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

BETWEEN

TIMOTHY HUGH CHRISTIAN TAYLOR

Claimant

and

ARLETTE JOELLE MARIE MADELEINE YAO AFFI

Defendant

ORDER WITH REASONS OF H.E. JUSTICE SIR JEREMY COOKE

UPON the Order of H.E. Justice Sir Jeremy Cooke dated 11 March 2026 (the “Order”)

AND UPON the Defendant’s written submissions on costs dated 18 March 2026

AND UPON the Claimant’s written responsive submissions dated 25 March 2026

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the Defendant shall pay the Claimant the sum of AED 120,000 within 14 days of the date of this order.

Issued by:
Delvin Sumo
Assistant Registrar
Date of Issue: 1 April 2026
At: 1pm

1. The Court in its Order of 11 March 2026 determined that the Defendant should pay the Claimant’s costs on the indemnity basis for the reasons set out in that Order. There is no basis for revisiting that decision.

2. Where costs are ordered on the indemnity basis, there is no room for arguments of proportionality – only of reasonableness of the costs incurred.

3. The major point taken by the Defendant was that the Claimant himself conducted the case in oral argument and no costs were claimed as a litigant in person. The Defendant maintained, without any basis for doing so, that the costs claimed in respect of the bill of costs of Hadef & partners must include work done by the Claimant himself and were not therefore reasonable. It was further said that costs of two lawyers were claimed in respect of the hearing when only one had attended but the evidence is that both lawyers attended the hearing online.

4. I reject the suggestion that Hadef & Partners have charged for work not done by them as another allegation that should not have been made. It was otherwise suggested that the Court should itself assess the reasonableness of the costs claimed, without any specific complaint about any element of them.

5. I have examined the Schedule of Costs submitted and find the hourly rates reasonable and the time spent justified save that it could be said that there is some excess in the overall time spent by the senior associate and for that reasons I make a small deduction from the amount claimed from AED 128,914.80 to AED 120,000.