Lower Murray Urban and Rural Water Corporation v Di Masi, Belbin and Marciano (No 2)

[2014] VSCA 133

Victorian Court of Appeal

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

See how it works

Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Costs of appeal
4. › Indemnity costs
5. › Discretion of appellate court
6. › Offer of compromise made at trial and rejected
7. › Whether rejected offer of compromise relevant to costs of appeal
8. › Whether grounds of appeal lacking merit warrant indemnity costs
9. › Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 (Vic), rr 26.12, 63.28, 63.30, 63.31
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Costs of appeal
4. › Standard basis versus indemnity basis
5. › Balancing factors in exercise of discretion
6. › Abandoned notice of contention
7. › Overarching obligations
8. › Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic), s 24
1. Defamation
2. › Costs
3. › Whether statutory indemnity costs provision applies to appellate proceedings
4. › Defamation Act 2005 (Vic), s 40

Quick Take

A rejected offer of compromise made at trial is a relevant but not determinative consideration in the appellate court's discretion as to costs of the appeal, particularly where the rules also provide for offers of compromise to be made in respect of appeals. The weakness of some grounds of appeal and the abandonment of notices of contention are factors to be balanced in the overall exercise of the costs discretion. Costs on a standard basis may be awarded for the whole appeal period as a middle ground between party and party costs and indemnity costs.