WEALTHY socialite Ivana Trump and top people's party organiser Lady Elizabeth Anson have been rapped in the Appeal Court over a bill for a posh bash at Raymond Blanc's Oxfordshire restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons.

Three appeal judges said Mrs Trump could contest the outstanding £6,500 unpaid balance of the £36,500 bill rendered by Lady Elizabeth - a cousin of the Queen - for exclusive hire of the restaurant at Great Milton for a two-day bash in 1993.

But Master of the Rolls, Lord Woolf, said it was "regrettable" that so much had been spent in legal costs - about £20,000 - over such a relatively small sum of money.

The judge added: "If a degree of sense had been shown on both sides, it is obvious that this matter could and should have been disposed of by agreement. I can only hope that, now this judgment has been given, that will be the result."

The court heard that Lady Elizabeth, trading as Party Planners, booked the hotel for 20 couples for a surpise 50th birthday for Mrs Trump's then fiance - now ex-husband - Riccardo Mazzuchelli over the weekend of June 19-20, 1993.

Mrs Trump, who had paid a £10,000 deposit, disputed the final bill, arguing that her agreement with Lady Elizabeth was for a party costing something under £25,000. In November 1996, Lady Elizabeth obtained a High Court judgment against Mrs Trump in default of any defence being entered. Later, a judge refused Mrs Trump's application to have the default judgment set aside.

Yesterday, Lord Woolf, sitting with Lords Justices Otton and Robert Walker, ruled that Mrs Trump should be allowed to defend the claim in respect of the £6,500 still at issue, even though her written defence to the action had been served on Lady Elizabeth's solicitors right at the last minute and too late to stop the default judgment being issued.

Mrs Trump, 49, who is thought to have been paid £10m after the break-up of her marriage to American tycoon Donald Trump, and Lady Elizabeth, sister of the Earl of Lichfield, were not in court for the judge's ruling.Lord Justice Otton said Mrs Trump's defence to the claim was faxed by solicitors to Lady Elizabeth's lawyers on the very day that they were applying for the default judgment against her. By the time it arrived, a representative had already left for the High Court to obtain the judgment and he did not know a defence had been served.

Despite that irregularity, Mrs Trump did have an arguable defence, said the judge. She claimed that charges for the services of Lady Elizabeth and her staff were excessive and in some instances duplicated. Requests for itemised accounts and invoices came to nothing.

The judges sent the case to a county court for a decision on the outstanding amount, plus interest, although if Lord Woolf's words are taken to heart there will probably be no need for a further hearing.

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