Junxiu Chen Almaoui Pty Ltd atf the Junxiu Almaoui Trust v Opus One Developments Pty Ltd atf the Opus One Unit Trust [2026] NSWSC 1359 — Party/Party — Barrister AI
Junxiu Chen Almaoui Pty Ltd atf the Junxiu Almaoui Trust v Opus One Developments Pty Ltd atf the Opus One Unit Trust
COSTS — Party/Party — Costs orders in interlocutory proceedings — No question of principle
COSTS — Party/Party — Court’s discretion — Where consent orders substantively resolved the plaintiff’s notice of motion — Where defendants’ would have succeeded had the motion proceeded to hearing and marked difference in reasonableness of the actions taken
COSTS — Party/Party — Bases of quantification — Indemnity basis — Where abandonment of claims made by the plaintiff under its notice of motion — Where consent orders resolving the motion reflect the position of the defendants — Where plaintiff ought to have known it had no prospects of success and the costs of bringing the motion — Where exercise of right of inspection by the plaintiff after filing of the motion
Quick Take
1Where a motion is resolved without a hearing on the merits, the usual position of no order as to costs may be departed from if the court is confident one party would almost certainly have succeeded, or if there was a marked difference in the reasonableness of the parties' conduct (Re Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs; Ex parte Lai Qin (1997) 186 CLR 622).
2Abandonment of a claim does not alone justify indemnity costs. On the facts, however, indemnity costs were warranted where the moving party, properly advised, ought to have known before filing that its claims to restrain repayment of a secured lender to the trust had no prospects, and it abandoned them on the hearing day without adequate explanation (applying Ghougassian v Fairfax Community Newspapers Pty Ltd [2015] NSWCA 307).
3A beneficiary's contention that it was entitled to await court-ordered production before deciding on a motion carries little weight where it could have exercised its existing inspection rights before filing the motion. The commercial burden of an undertaking as to damages that would accompany any injunction is a matter that ought to be assessed before bringing the motion.
