Hundy v Turner [2019] NSWSC 1881

“Forget assessment. Just pay me a fixed amount of costs!”  

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The plaintiff was trustee of a bankrupt estate that included a co-ownership interest in some land: [6]  

After some back and forth about selling it, the plaintiff commenced s66G proceedings and got the Court to appoint trustees for sale: [14]  

The orders made included an order that the other co-owner pay the legal costs of the plaintiff.  The property was sold, yielding a modest sum: [15]  

The plaintiff’s lawyer itemised the legal costs incurred in the s66G proceedings, discounted them, and sought the other co-owner’s approval that they be paid from the trust funds: [16]  

The other co-owner’s solicitor was, to put it politely, effectively unresponsive over a period: [17] – [25]  

Rather than getting the legal costs assessed, the plaintiff sought a fixed sum costs order.  The Court agreed a fixed sum costs order was appropriate, due largely to the conduct of the defendant who failed to engage with the “relatively simple” matter of costs: [41]  

The eventual costs order was more or less the sum sought: [43], [44]