Garcia Arenas v Fica; Crosby v Fica (No 3) [2018] NSWSC 385

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Garcia Arenas v Fica; Crosby v Fica (No 3) [2018] NSWSC 385 Hearing dates: 28 February 2018 Date of orders: 29 March 2018 Decision date: 29 March 2018 Jurisdiction: Equity - Family Provision List Before: Parker J Decision: Terms of trust specified for trust provision to be made in favour of one claimant who is a minor. Party-party costs orders made on a specified gross sum basis in favour of two claimants. Other claimant's solicitor ordered to apply for assessment of costs on a solicitor-client basis, with a party-party specified gross sum order to follow if required. Catchwords: COSTS – gross sum order – where actual solicitor-client costs exceed estimated solicitor-client costs – whether sufficient material provided to calculate an appropriate "gross sum" – whether plaintiffs have prior experience of litigation – risk of unfairness – Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW), s 172 – costs subject to "an overriding limit of fairness and reasonableness" – Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW), s 184 – s 172 limit prevails over contractual provisions – impact of proportional gap between party-party and solicitor-client costs on "net recovery" Legislation Cited: Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW) Probate and Administration Act 1898 (NSW) Trustee Act 1925 (NSW) Cases Cited: Firth v Centrelink (2002) 55 NSWLR 451 Harrison v Schipp (2002) 54 NSWLR 738 Category: Consequential orders (other than Costs) Parties: 2016/236378 Susana Garcia Arenas (First Plaintiff) Gemma Garcia Arenas (Second Plaintiff) Juan Fica (Defendant)