Brown v Randwick City Council (No 2)

The parties to the case were Brown, the applicant, and Randwick City Council, the first, second, and third respondents. The dispute centred on an application for costs following a proceeding in which the applicant had sought a declaration that a certain area of land was not subject to a covenant. The case was heard in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.

The court was required to consider the appropriate allocation of costs under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) and the relevant case law. Specifically, the court had to decide whether the applicant, who had been successful on the merits, was entitled to an order for costs against the respondents who had been unsuccessful.

The court found that the applicant was entitled to an order for costs against the respondents. The court considered that the applicant's claim was reasonable and that the respondents had no real prospect of success and no reasonable prospect of succeeding on the merits. The court also noted that the applicant had acted reasonably in pursuing the proceedings and that the respondents had acted unreasonably in defending the proceedings. The court ordered that the first respondent, and the second and third respondents, pay the applicant's costs of the proceedings, including the costs of the applications for costs of the proceedings.