George v Webb

George brought an action against Webb in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute involved the calculation of interest on a sum of money owed by Webb to George. The court was required to determine whether an amendment to the date from which interest was calculated was permissible under the slip rule of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) and whether the interests of justice required the reopening of the issue of interest. The court was also tasked with determining the appropriate costs order, including whether a genuine offer of compromise had been made.

The court found that the amendment to the date from which interest was calculated did not fall within the scope of the slip rule, which only permitted minor amendments to pleadings without the necessity of formal leave. The court held that the interests of justice did not require the reopening of the issue of interest, as there was no suggestion that material previously unavailable would have affected the outcome. Regarding costs, the court held that the plaintiff's offer of compromise, which relinquished the claim to interest on the principal sum, involved a genuine element of compromise and was not derisory or merely an offer for the defendant to surrender. The court granted an order for indemnity costs, finding that the defendants' failure to accept the plaintiff's offer was unreasonable in all the circumstances.

The court made orders that the interest would be calculated from the date specified in the original pleadings, denied the reopening of the issue of interest, and ordered the defendants to pay the plaintiff's costs on an indemnity basis. The court emphasised that the basis for special costs sanctions was whether the offeree's failure to accept the offer in all the circumstances warranted a departure from the ordinary rule as to costs.