Bele & Vaughan (Costs)

Bele and Vaughan were the parties involved in this case, with Bele being the applicant and Vaughan the respondent. The dispute centred on costs associated with an appeal filed by Bele on 13 June 2012 and the subsequent response by Vaughan on 6 July 2012. The court was tasked with determining the costs Bele owed to Vaughan for the proceedings, including those related to the preparation of written submissions on costs.

The legal issues before the court included the appropriate basis for calculating the costs Bele owed to Vaughan, and whether those costs should be paid from Bele’s share of the net proceeds of the sale of a specific property. The court had to decide on the methodology for assessing the costs and the source from which they would be paid.

The court dismissed Bele’s application for costs and ordered Bele to pay Vaughan’s costs from the appeal filing date until judgment, calculated on an indemnity basis. Additionally, the court stipulated that if Bele and Vaughan could not agree on the exact amount of costs owed, the costs would be assessed on an indemnity basis. Finally, the court mandated that the costs Bele owed to Vaughan be paid from Bele’s share of the net proceeds of the sale of the property located at No 9, which had been sold pursuant to consent orders made by Justice Le Poer Trench on 13 December 2011.