COSTS — appeals against categorisations of rateable lands by Council — appeals settled by consent orders of the Court — applicant subsequently applies for a costs order — no order for costs unless fair and reasonable in the circumstances — whether Council's conduct before and/or during proceedings was unreasonable — whether an order for costs should be made on an indemnity basis — decisions made by Council in categorising lands as mining, declining to change category and defending appeals were sufficiently unreasonable and affected by legal error — Council erred in law by incorrectly construing the relevant statutory provision for categorisation of rateable land as mining — mere noise affectation of parcels of rateable land by mine is insufficient to constitute use for a mine — change of ownership of noise affected land does not by itself change use of land — purpose of acquisition of land does not by itself cause a change in use of land acquired — mere holding of land for a mining purpose not a use for a mine — Council had sufficient information on the use of the parcels for residential or farming at the time it made its decisions to re-categorise rateable lands as mining, decline to change these categories and defend the appeals — Council's conduct sufficiently unreasonable as to found a costs order on a party/party but not indemnity basis — Council ordered to pay the applicant's costs of the appeal proceedings and to pay the applicant's costs of the application for costs
Case Details
Citation[2013] NSWLEC 86
CourtNSWLEC
JurisdictionNew South Wales
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