Waldemar Drexler t/as Drexler & Partners Litigation Lawyers v Karabay & Ors [2014] NSWSC 1863

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Waldemar Drexler t/as Drexler & Partners Litigation Lawyers v Karabay & Ors [2014] NSWSC 1863 Hearing dates: 10 December 2014 Decision date: 10 December 2014 Jurisdiction: Equity Division Before: White J Decision: 1.Direct the parties to bring in short minutes of order in accordance with thee reasons. 2.Make no order as to costs as between the plaintiffs and the sixth defendant. 3.Order that the first defendant pay the costs of the plaintiffs and of the second to fifth defendants. 4.Order that the proceedings against the second and third defendants be dismissed. Catchwords: PROCEDURE - Supreme Court procedure - New South Wales - power to deal with moneys paid into Court PROFESSIONS AND TRADES - lawyers - liens - fruits of litigation lien - liens asserted by different firms of solicitors over single fund paid into Court - whether solicitors' failure to make adequate disclosure of estimated costs and to render detailed bills constituted grounds for rejecting assertion of lien - whether assessment of costs should be referred to a costs assessor as referee or determined pursuant to procedures under Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) Cases Cited: Torrac Nominees Pty Ltd v Karabay; UWS Macarthur Sports & Recreation Association Inc v Karabay [2007] NSWCA 96; (2007) 69 NSWLR 669 Karabay v Carr [2014] NSWCA 143 Ex Parte Patience; Mackinson v The Minister (1940) 40 SR (NSW) 96 Grogan v Orr [2001] NSWCA 114 Jackson v Richards [2005] NSWSC 630 JKB Holdings Pty Limited v de la Vega [2013] NSWSC 501 Texts Cited: G Dal Pont, The Law of Costs, 3rd ed Category: Principal judgment Parties: Waldemar Drexler & John Purkiss t/as Drexler & Partners Litigation Lawyers (Plaintiffs) Sadi Mustafa Karabay (1st Defendant) YPOL Pty Ltd (t/as Yeldham Price O'Brien Lusk) ACN 109 710 698 (2nd Defendant) Malcolm Carr t/as Forshaw Neil Solicitors (3rd Defendant) Ron Kramer (4th Defendant) David Malcolm Wellesley Pain t/as David Pain & Co (5th Defendant) Paul Clough (6th Defendant) Representation: Counsel: G Segal (Plaintiff) L Stephens (1st Defendant) L Moussa (2nd & 3rd Defendants) M Castle (4th and 5th Defendants) In person (6th Defendant) Solicitors: Drexler & Partners Litigation Lawyers (Plaintiffs) Yeldham Price O'Brien Lusk (2nd and 3rd Defendants) David Pain & Co (5th Defendant) File Number(s): 2014/254214