Pearce & Pearce (No 2)

This matter concerned an application for costs following earlier proceedings between the parties, Mr. Pearce (husband) and Mrs. Pearce (wife). The proceedings before Dawe J related to the wife's claim for costs incurred in various applications filed by both parties, as well as the husband's application for a stay of proceedings.

The primary legal issues before the court were the allocation of costs for the various applications made by the parties, particularly in light of the wife's success in some of those applications, and the determination of costs for the husband's stay application. The court was also required to consider the timing and method of cost assessment and payment, including the impact of an anticipated appeal judgment.

Dawe J ordered that the husband pay the wife's costs of and incidental to the proceedings, excluding costs related to children's issues incurred after 20 September 2013, and excluding the costs of the stay application. This included the costs of the wife's applications filed on 6 September 2011, 16 May 2012, and 26 March 2013, and the husband's applications filed on 12 February 2013 and 8 August 2013. These costs were to be agreed between the parties within 28 days of the Full Court's appeal judgment, or otherwise assessed on a party/party basis. Each party was to bear their own costs for the husband's stay application. Further, any steps to calculate or enforce these costs orders were stayed for 28 days after the delivery of the Full Court's judgment on the property settlement appeal. The court also certified the matter as fit for senior counsel.