Miller v Miller (No 2)

In the case of Miller v Miller (No 2), the court dealt with an application concerning the costs of a preliminary issue in a family provision matter. The dispute arose from a settlement offer made by the estate of the deceased, Colin Miller, to his son, the applicant, in relation to the administration of Colin's estate. The applicant challenged the settlement offer and the court was required to determine the costs associated with the preliminary issue of whether the application was time-barred.

The legal issues before the court were whether the general rule that costs follow the event applied, and if so, whether there were any circumstances under which the court could depart from this rule in light of the conduct of the parties. The court also needed to consider the impact of the applicant's non-acceptance of the settlement offers on the costs of the action.

The court found that the non-acceptance of the settlement offers by the applicant did not affect the costs of the preliminary issue. The general rule that costs follow the event applied, but the court had the discretion to depart from this rule based on the conduct of the parties. The court held that the costs of the preliminary issue should be those incurred by the parties in the action after a certain date, up until the conclusion of the preliminary issue, excluding any costs related to an appeal against the judgment on the preliminary issue. The court concluded that there should be no order as to the costs of the preliminary issue.

The final orders of the court were that no order be made as to the costs of the preliminary issue and that the costs be defined as those incurred by the parties in the action after a specified date, up until the conclusion of the preliminary issue, excluding any costs related to an appeal against the judgment on the preliminary issue.