Warburton v County Construction (NSW) Pty Ltd (No 3) [2022] NSWSC 1563

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Warburton v County Construction (NSW) Pty Ltd (No 3) [2022] NSWSC 1563 Hearing dates: Last written submissions 2 November 2022 Date of orders: 17 November 2022 Decision date: 17 November 2022 Jurisdiction: Equity - Corporations List Before: Black J Decision: (i) Order that there be pre-judgment interest in favour of the Plaintiffs in the amount of $44,881.75. (ii) No order as to the costs of the proceedings and the cross-claim as between the Plaintiffs and the First Defendant. (iii) Plaintiff to pay the Second Defendant's costs of the Amended Statement of Claim on an ordinary basis, as agreed or as assessed. Catchwords: COSTS — Party/Party — Exceptions to general rule that costs follow the event — Where plaintiffs only succeeded in respect of a few issues and recovered a small proportion of the total amount claimed by them — Where plaintiffs initially relied on a substantial amount of inadmissible evidence which was abandoned at the commencement of the hearing — Where the defendants abandoned a defence at the commencement of the hearing. Legislation Cited: Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 42.1 Cases Cited: - Bostik Australia Pty Ltd v Liddiard (No 2) [2009] NSWCA 304 - Breakfast Investments Pty Ltd v Giannopoulos & Anor (No 7) [2012] NSWSC 495 - Commonwealth of Australia v Gretton [2008] NSWCA 117 - Corbett Court Pty Ltd v Quasar Constructions (NSW) Pty Ltd [2008] NSWSC 1423 - Doppstadt Australia Pty Ltd v Lovick & Son Developments Pty Ltd (No 2) [2014] NSWCA 219 - Heath v Greenacre Business Park Pty Ltd [2016] NSWCA 34 - Il Vizio Corp Pty Ltd v Cashflow Finance Australia Pty Ltd (No 2) [2018] NSWCA 142 - Kraissa v Hair Industrie Penrith Pty Ltd [2015] NSWSC 1905 - Leach v The Nominal Defendant (QBE Insurance (Australia) Ltd (No 2) [2014] NSWCA 391 - McBride v Christies Australia Pty Ltd (No 2) [2015] NSWSC 754 - Monie v Commonwealth of Australia (No 2) [2008] NSWCA 15 - Re Colorado Products Pty Ltd (in prov liq) [2014] NSWSC 1509 - Shield Mercantile v Citigroup [2013] NSWSC 287 - The Owners — Strata Plan No 61,162 v Lipman [2014] NSWSC 622 - Warburton v County Construction (NSW) Pty Ltd [2022] NSWSC 941 - Warburton v County Construction (NSW) Pty Ltd [2022] NSWSC 1281 Category: Costs Parties: Mark Warburton (First Plaintiff/First Cross-Defendant) Jacqueline Warburton (Second Plaintiff/Second Cross-Defendant) County Construction (NSW) Pty Ltd (First Defendant/Cross-Claimant) Robert Daryl Hart (Second Defendant) Representation: Counsel: F Hicks SC (Plaintiffs/Cross-Defendants) M Klooster (Defendants/Cross-Claimant)