The Court held that s 664F(4) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), which requires a 90% holder to bear 'the costs that a person incurs' in compulsory acquisition proceedings, refers to costs on the standard basis rather than the indemnity basis, as reading it otherwise would run counter to the settled Australian practice that costs are awarded on a standard basis absent special circumstances. The Court declined to exercise its residual discretion to award indemnity costs where the application failed due to a calculation error in the applicant's expert report, noting the applicant disclosed the error promptly, cooperated in having the application dismissed, and discontinued the compulsory acquisition process. The question of whether s 664F(4) on its proper interpretation extends to indemnity costs, left open in Re Optimum Health Care Pty Ltd [2008] FCA 195, was addressed but not treated as definitively resolved.
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