Bata v Pathik [No 2]

The Court of Appeal held that where a builder succeeded on only one of four appeal grounds, reducing damages by approximately 20%, the owner was still entitled to costs of the appeal on a broad evaluative assessment. Pre-trial offers of compromise and Calderbank offers, though not renewed before the appeal, remained relevant to the appellate costs discretion; the builder's failure to accept offers that were more favourable than the post-appeal outcome weighed heavily against him. The Court exercised its power to fix costs at $80,000 as a gross sum to avoid the expense and delay of taxation, applying discounts of approximately 33% on interlocutory costs and a lesser discount on appeal costs.