Grills v Leighton Contractors Pty Limited (No 2)

This matter came before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, constituted by Beazley P and Gleeson JA, concerning applications to amend previous orders. The appellant, Mr. Grills, sought to amend orders made by the Court of Appeal on 27 March 2015, which in turn had amended orders made by the trial judge on 23 April 2014. The dispute involved the apportionment of liability and the calculation of interest and costs between Mr. Grills, Leighton Contractors Pty Limited, and the State.

The Court was required to determine whether to exercise its discretion under the slip rule (UCPR, r 36.17) to amend the earlier orders. Specifically, the Court had to consider the appropriate date from which appellate judgments have effect, the calculation of post-judgment interest under the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW), s 101, and the allocation of costs in a workplace injury proceeding under the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW), s 346. The central issues revolved around correcting errors in the previous orders concerning the amounts payable by each defendant and the basis upon which interest should be calculated.

The Court reasoned that the previous orders contained an error in the calculation of the amounts to be paid by Leighton Contractors and the State, and that the interest should be calculated only on those specific apportioned amounts rather than the full judgment sums. The Court also addressed the costs of the appeal, ordering Leighton Contractors to pay a specific percentage of the appellant's costs, with other costs to be borne by the parties themselves. The Court exercised its discretion to amend the orders to give effect to its intended judgment, correcting the identified errors. The Court ultimately set aside the previous orders and substituted new orders reflecting the corrected liability, interest calculation, and costs allocation.