Bourne v Queensland Building and Construction Commission (No 2)

The court was presented with a case involving Bourne and the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, where the latter had paid a sum of money to a former client of Bourne's company under a statutory insurance scheme. Bourne, who owed this money to the Commission as a debt, sought judicial review of the Commission's decision to initiate proceedings to recover the debt. In response, the Commission filed an application to have Bourne's judicial review application dismissed under section 48 of the Judicial Review Act 1991 (Qld). The Commission's application was successful, while Bourne's was unsuccessful. The Commission argued that costs should not follow the event, as the procedures adopted in Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) proceedings had prevented Bourne from challenging the payment made under the statutory insurance scheme.

The legal issue before the court was whether, despite the Commission's success in its application, costs should still follow the event. The court considered the principle that costs generally follow the event but acknowledged the argument that the procedures adopted by the Commission in QCAT had limited Bourne's ability to challenge the payment. The court found that, despite this limitation, the Commission's application to have the judicial review dismissed was successful, and Bourne's application was unsuccessful. Therefore, the court held that costs should follow the event in this case.

Consequently, the court ordered that Bourne was to pay the Commission's costs on the standard basis, including reserved costs of and incidental to the originating application filed by Bourne on 23 October 2017 and the Commission's application filed on 25 January 2018. Additionally, Bourne was to pay the Commission's costs thrown away by the adjournment on 28 March 2018 on an indemnity basis. This decision underscored the principle that costs generally follow the event in civil proceedings, while also considering the specific procedural context in which the applications were made.