Muldoon v Melbourne City Council [2014] FCA 63

Muldoon v Melbourne City Council [2014] FCA 63

The Council was the substantially successful party because the applicants' primary challenge to the regulations and local law failed; the applicants' success on jurisdiction and the second applicant's limited success concerning three notices to comply justified reducing the Council's recoverable costs by 20 per cent. The original claim against the Chief Commissioner was misconceived, any public interest point could be determined without joining him, and any public interest ceased after Adelaide Corporation, so the applicants had to pay all of his costs.

Jurisdiction
Australia
Judgment Date
12 February 2014
Procedural Posture
Costs / Costs Determined on the Papers After Judgment Delivered on 1 October 2013
Outcome
The applicants were ordered to pay 80 per cent of Melbourne City Council's costs and all of the Chief Commissioner's costs, with no order as to costs involving the State of Victoria or the Attorney-General for the State of Victoria.
Legal Topics
["court's Discretion to Award Costs" 'costs Follow the Event' 'special Circumstances' 'public Interest Litigation' 'freedom of Political Communication' 'validity of Local Laws and Regulations' 'notices to Comply']
['costs' 'constitutional Law' 'administrative Law'] ["court's Discretion to Award Costs" 'costs Follow the Event' 'special Circumstances' 'public Interest Litigation' 'freedom of Political Communication' 'validity of Local Laws and Regulations' 'notices to Comply']

Case Brief

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Procedural Posture

Costs / Costs Determined on the Papers After Judgment Delivered on 1 October 2013

Legal Issues

  1. 1 ['Whether special circumstances justified departing from the usual order that the successful party receive its costs' "Whether the applicants' limited success on jurisdiction and three notices to comply affected the costs payable to Melbourne City Council" 'Whether the timing of Attorney-General (SA) v Corporation of the City of Adelaide (2013) 295 ALR 197; [2013] HCA 3 justified a different costs order' 'Whether the proceedings against the Chief Commissioner involved public interest litigation sufficient to avoid a costs order']

Ratio Decidendi

The Council was the substantially successful party because the applicants' primary challenge to the regulations and local law failed; the applicants' success on jurisdiction and the second applicant's limited success concerning three notices to comply justified reducing the Council's recoverable costs by 20 per cent. The original claim against the Chief Commissioner was misconceived, any public interest point could be determined without joining him, and any public interest ceased after Adelaide Corporation, so the applicants had to pay all of his costs.

Court Disposition

The applicants were ordered to pay 80 per cent of Melbourne City Council's costs and all of the Chief Commissioner's costs, with no order as to costs involving the State of Victoria or the Attorney-General for the State of Victoria.

Orders

  • ['The applicants pay 80 per cent of the costs of the first respondent.' 'The applicants pay the costs of the second respondent.' 'There be no order as to costs as between the applicants and the third respondents and the intervener, the Attorney-General for the State of Victoria.']