Boxx v Peden

[2017] ACTCA 39

ACT Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Power to award costs
4. › Criminal appeals from Magistrates Court to Supreme Court
5. › Whether Supreme Court has power to make costs order in criminal appeal under div 3.10.2
6. › Whether costs power must be found in statute
7. › Magistrates Court Act 1930 (ACT), s 218(1)(b)
8. › Court Procedures Rules 2006 (ACT), rr 1721, 5001, 5052
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Statutory basis for costs orders
4. › Distinction between jurisdiction and power
5. › Whether general power provision confers jurisdiction to award costs
6. › Court Procedures Rules 2006 (ACT), r 5052(1)(e)
7. › Magistrates Court Act 1930 (ACT), s 218(1)(b)
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Criminal appeals
3. › Classification of proceedings
4. › Whether criminal appeal is a 'civil proceeding'
5. › Definitions of 'appellate proceeding', 'civil proceeding' and 'criminal proceeding'
6. › Court Procedures Rules 2006 (ACT), Dictionary, r 5001
1. Statutes
2. › Interpretation
3. › Counterintuitive judicial gloss
4. › Community access to meaning of legislation
5. › Undesirability of extracting meaning through convoluted historical analysis
6. › Legislation Act 2001 (ACT), ss 140, 141

Quick Take

The Supreme Court of the ACT has no power to make costs orders in respect of criminal appeals from the Magistrates Court brought under div 3.10.2 of the Magistrates Court Act 1930 (ACT). Neither s 218(1)(b) of the Magistrates Court Act nor r 5052(1)(e) of the Court Procedures Rules 2006 (ACT) confers such power. A criminal appeal is not a 'civil proceeding' for the purposes of the Court Procedures Rules, so the general costs discretion in r 1721 does not apply. This represents a legislative lacuna that has existed since the expiry of s 134 of the Court Procedures Act 2004 (ACT) on 1 July 2006.