PREMIER WOODWORKING CO PTY LTD v SIGANISUCU [1989] NSWCA 250

PREMIER WOODWORKING CO PTY LTD v SIGANISUCU

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

SAMUELS (1) AP, PRIESTLEY (1) JA AND HOPE (1) AJA 30 November 1989, 30 November 1989 [1989] NSWCA 250

COSTS — appeal without merit withdrawn and dismissed — order for costs on a solicitor and client basis. ORDERS The appeal is dismissed. The appellant is to pay the respondent's costs on a solicitor and client basis. Liberty to apply on seven days' notice for the purpose of amending the cord, if that should be necessary.

Samuels AP, Priestley JA and Hope AJA When this matter was called on Mr Cranitch, for the appellant, withdrew the appeal, a course of action which was thoroughly well-founded in our opinion. There is no doubt therefore but that the appeal must be dismissed with costs.

Mr Poulos, for the respondent, has submitted that we ought to make a special costs order, an order on an indemnity basis, a form of order which we are inclined to think has only a very frail footing in the costs rules. We were not, however, referred to authority, nor was the point fully argued.

However, there are other forms of order which are somewhat more generous than the ordinary order as between party and party and we have therefore considered whether we should apply one of those. The conclusion depends, we think, upon whether this is a case in which we feel that any deficit between the costs in fact incurred and the costs recoverable on a party and party basis should be reduced as far as possible. That consideration depends upon the merits of the proceeding.

Turning to the grounds of the supplementary notice of appeal, grounds one, two and three are totally without foundation because they seek to raise questions of fact, which are of course not the subject of appeal from the Compensation Court to the Court of Appeal. This might well be akin to the most obscure proposition of quantum physics, having regard to the difficulty with which it appears to penetrate the minds of some solicitors and counsel.