F Mekler v D Mekler & Ors [2016] NSWSC 250

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: F Mekler v D Mekler & Ors [2016] NSWSC 250 Hearing dates: 8 February 2016 Decision date: 16 March 2016 Jurisdiction: Equity - Corporations List Before: Black J Decision: Application for costs dismissed. Catchwords: PROCEDURE — Costs — where the Defendant sought indemnity costs for the costs of two motions – whether the Plaintiff had acted unreasonably – whether the Defendant was almost certain to have succeeded if the motions had been fully determined. Legislation Cited: Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), ss 198F, 237, 290, 1303 Practice Note SC Eq 11 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 33.4 Cases Cited: - New Price Retail Services Pty Ltd v David Hanna [2012] NSWSC 422 - Re North Coast Transit Pty Ltd [2013] NSWSC 1912 - Re The Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs of the Commonwealth of Australia; Ex parte Lai Qin [1997] HCA 6; (1997) 186 CLR 622 Category: Costs Parties: Fernanda Mekler (Plaintiff) Dana Mekler (First Defendant) Jia Yan (Second Defendant) Rinfort Pty Ltd (Third Defendant) Representation: Counsel: J T Svehla (Plaintiff) F Assaf (First Defendant)

Solicitors: & Legal (Plaintiff) Mills Oakley (Defendant) File Number(s): 2015/251530

Judgment 1. This application concerns the costs of an application to set aside a subpoena brought by the Plaintiff, Mrs Fernanda Mekler, and of an application seeking orders under s 1303 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to compel the production of documents brought by the First Defendant, Mr Dana Mekler. Neither of those applications proceeded to a hearing on the merits, in circumstances to which I will refer below.