Silver Star Fashions Pty Ltd v Dal Broi (No 2) [2018] NSWSC 1697

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Silver Star Fashions Pty Ltd v Dal Broi (No 2) [2018] NSWSC 1697 Hearing dates: On the papers Date of orders: 08 November 2018 Decision date: 08 November 2018 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Darke J Decision: Costs order varied to provide that plaintiff pay some of first to tenth defendants' costs on an indemnity basis. Catchwords: COSTS – departing from general rule – first to tenth defendants' application for indemnity costs based on Calderbank offer – offer not accepted by plaintiff – proceedings brought in name of plaintiff and conducted by third party – third party is effectively the plaintiff – offer provided for payments to be made to third party – plaintiff unsuccessful – plaintiff in position to make reasonable assessment of its prospects at time offer was made – plaintiff unreasonably rejected Calderbank offer

COSTS – departing from general rule – plaintiff's application to limit the costs of eleventh and twelfth defendants to the proportion of costs incurred by each of the first to tenth defendants – the eleventh and twelfth defendants represented by solicitors and counsel separate from those representing the first to tenth defendants – plaintiff submitted that retaining separate legal representation was unreasonable where all defendants had same interests and s 66ZL(8) of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) made the plaintiff prima facie liable for the defendants' costs – eleventh and twelfth defendants did not act unreasonably in retaining separate legal representation in the absence of any objection raised by the plaintiff Legislation Cited: Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW), s 66ZL Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), rr 36.15, 36.16 Cases Cited: Deputy Cmr of Taxation v Meredith (No 2) [2008] NSWCA 133 DGF Property Holdings Pty Ltd v Di Federico; DGF Property Holdings Pty Ltd v Butros (No 2) [2018] NSWSC 1137 Miwa Pty Ltd v Siantan Properties Pte Ltd (No 2) [2011] NSWCA 344 Silver Star Fashions v Dal Broi [2018] NSWSC 1445 Category: Costs Parties: Silver Star Fashions Pty Ltd (Plaintiff) Aaron Luke Dal Broi (First Defendant) Amanda Ye May Chin (Second Defendant) Matthew Robert Carnachan (Third Defendant) Ashely Cliff Wong (Fourth Defendant) Jordan Curtis Zubani (Fifth Defendant) Courtney Zubani (Sixth Defendant) Junmei Gu (Seventh Defendant) Mitchell James Jordan (Eighth Defendant) Sonja Bijou Keith (Ninth Defendant) David Robert Grayhurst (Tenth Defendant) Hugh Linton Selleck (Eleventh Defendant) Thomas Edward Christensen (Twelfth Defendant) Representation: Counsel: Mr G A Sirtes SC with Ms A Avery-Williams (Plaintiff) Mr P S Braham SC with Mr D Neggo (First to Tenth Defendants) Mr J P Redmond (Eleventh and Twelfth Defendants)