New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Reasonableness of conduct

Legal area

Court

21 Dec 2022

ROBINSON v BEAMAN [As to costs of non-party discovery application] [2022] NZHC 3590

Citation

[2022] NZHC 3590
Court

High Court

The non-party reasonably opposed the non-party discovery application and there were no exceptional circumstances to deny costs; reasonable costs were assessed below actual charges to reflect volume of material, and the estate should not bear the costs; accordingly Shane Michael Beaman personally must pay Mr Robinson $8,000 for responding to the discovery application, $1,000 for the costs application, and $110 disbursements.
31 Mar 2021

NIVEN v 8 HEREFORD LTD [2021] NZHC 688

Citation

[2021] NZHC 688
Court

High Court

The signed settlement agreement signed the day the originating application was served settled the proceedings (both District Court and this High Court proceeding) with no issue as to costs, thereby precluding a claim for costs; alternatively, even absent the agreement, indemnity costs were not justified because the alleged improper lodging of the caveat was pre-litigation conduct or, if within the proceeding, its lack of merit was not obvious and incontrovertible, so no award of indemnity costs should be made.
11 Sept 2018

CLEMENTS v AUCKLAND COUNCIL [2018] NZHC 2388

Citation

[2018] NZHC 2388
Court

High Court

Costs were awarded to the respondent on a 2B basis because the Council was the successful party, costs normally follow the event, and the applicant did not act reasonably in the conduct of the proceedings (numerous meritless applications, failure to attend hearing, failure to file submissions), so the public interest character of the case did not justify reducing or waiving costs.
30 Sept 2016

RAMAGE v EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION & ANOR [2016] NZHC 2327

Citation

[2016] NZHC 2327
Court

High Court

Court found Southern Response had internally assessed the claim as over the EQC cap but externally adopted EQC's under‑cap position and failed to inform the plaintiffs or take steps to correct EQC; that conduct was sufficiently unreasonable to justify displacing the usual rule that costs lie where they fall. Applying a mitigation for negotiated settlement, Court awarded 25% of reasonable scale costs and disbursements against Southern Response and awarded costs of the costs application to plaintiffs.

New Zealand Case Law

ROBINSON v BEAMAN [As to costs of non-party discovery application] [2022] NZHC 3590

NIVEN v 8 HEREFORD LTD [2021] NZHC 688

CLEMENTS v AUCKLAND COUNCIL [2018] NZHC 2388

RAMAGE v EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION & ANOR [2016] NZHC 2327