Galea v Camilleri; The Estate of Patricia Camilleri (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 385

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Galea v Camilleri; The Estate of Patricia Camilleri (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 385 Hearing dates: 4 April 2023 Date of orders: 18 April 2023 Decision date: 18 April 2023 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Meek J Decision: Judgment given for specific sums. No order as to costs of the administration proceedings. Executor to pay costs of commission proceedings. Stay refused. Catchwords: ORDERS — Discussion regarding orders to give effect to findings in respect of administration proceedings resulting in some successful claims — Absence of evidence — Discussion of Armory v Delamirie principle whether in an estate claim the Court is justified in proceeding on the basis of attributing to shares the highest value that is reasonably open on the evidence INTEREST — Claim for pre-judgment interest on a judgment for interest — Applicable principles COSTS — Meaning of event — Discussion of apportionment orders — Consideration of principle that the Court does not usually apportion costs between issues, but acts on the outcome of the proceedings as a whole, without attempting to differentiate issues on which the party may not have succeeded — Natural divide between 13 issues on which the plaintiff succeeded on 4 related issues and the defendant on the balance making some differentiation of costs appropriate — The costs discretion regarding that differentiation may be exercised by various approaches, specifically either an apportionment of issues approach or a pragmatic approach — Pragmatic approach favoured COSTS — Claims for indemnity costs — Consideration of whether Court ought to award indemnity costs reflecting its disapproval of executor's conduct and whether executor's conduct unnecessarily protracted the litigation SUCCESSION — Executors and administrators — Costs of passing accounts — Applicable principles STAY — Application for a stay of judgment to enable executor to give consideration to whether to file a notice of appeal or a notice of intention to appeal — Consideration of applicable principles Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: Alexander v Cambridge Credit Corporation Ltd (1985) 2 NSWLR 685 Armory v Delamirie (1722) 1 Strange 505; 93 ER 664 Bushwall Properties Ltd v Vortex Properties Ltd [1975] 1 WLR 1649 Bushwall Properties Ltd v Vortex Properties Ltd [1976] 1 WLR 591 Chadwick v Bondi Beach Food Pty Ltd (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 246 Colgate-Palmolive Co v Cussons Pty Ltd (1993) 46 FCR 225; [1993] FCA 801 Degmam Pty Ltd (in liq) v Wright (No 2) [1983] 2 NSWLR 354 Ford v Princehorn; Estate of Ford [2012] NSWSC 1165 Fountain Selected Meats (Sales) Pty Ltd v International Produce Merchants Ltd [1988] FCA 364; (1998) 81 ALR 397 Frith v Sipple (Court of Appeal (NSW), Moffitt P, Hutley and Mahoney JJA, 11 September 1978, unrep) Galea v Camilleri; The Estate of Patricia Camilleri [2023] NSWSC 206 Hamod v New South Wales [2002] FCA 424; (2002) 188 ALR 659 Horn v GA & RG Horn Pty Ltd (No 2) [2022] NSWSC 1747 In the matter of Optimisation Australia Pty Ltd (Costs) [2018] NSWSC 280 Islam v Australian Real Estate Relation Pty Ltd [2023] NSWCA 47 Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298 Kalifair Pty Ltd v Digi-Tech (Aust) Ltd (2002) 55 NSWLR 737; [2002] NSWCA 383 Latoudis v Casey (1990) 170 CLR 534; [1990] HCA 59 Maestrale v Aspite [2014] NSWCA 182; (2014) 13 ASTLR 262 MBP (SA) Pty Ltd v Gogic (1991) 171 CLR 657; [1991] HCA 3 Network Ten Pty Ltd v Rowe [2006] NSWCA 4; (2006) 149 IR 273 New South Wales Bar Association v Stevens [2003] NSWCA 95; (2003) 52 ATR 602 Paringa Mining & Exploration Co plc v North Flinders Mines Ltd (1988) 165 CLR 452; [1988] HCA 53 Port Macquarie-Hastings Council v Diveva Pty Ltd (T/as Mid Coast Road Services) [2017] NSWCA 4 Re Estate Ford; Application for Executor's Commission [2016] NSWSC 6 Richardson v Richardson [2021] NSWSC 353 Sabah Yazgi v Permanent Custodians (No 2) [2007] NSWCA 306 Screenco Pty Ltd v RL Dew Pty Ltd (2003) 58 NSWLR 720; [2003] NSWCA 319 Sydney Attractions Group Pty Ltd v Schulman (No 4) [2013] NSWSC 1728 Tchadovitch v Tchadovitch (2010) 79 NSWLR 491; [2010] NSWCA 316 The Estate of Maureen Laila Huber, of Cobram Vic; The Estate of Dolf Paul Huber [2020] NSWSC 1539 Thomas v SMP (International) (No 6) [2010] NSWSC 1311 Wentworth v Rogers [1999] NSWCA 403 Texts Cited: Handler, Leslie G and Richard Neal, Mason and Handler Succession Law and Practice New South Wales (LexisNexis) Janes, Stephen, David Liebhold and Paul Studdert, Wills, Probate and Administration Law in New South Wales (2nd ed, 2020, Thomson Reuters) Practice Note SC Gen 16 Ritchie's Uniform Civil Procedure NSW (LexisNexis Butterworths) Category: Costs Parties: Carol Galea (First Plaintiff) Reno Camilleri (Second Plaintiff) Peter Camilleri (Third Plaintiff) John Camilleri (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: A Crossland and A Rao (Plaintiffs) L Ellison SC (Defendant)