Ssabr Pty Ltd v AMA Group Ltd (No 2)

The plaintiffs, Ssabr Pty Ltd, filed a suit against the defendants, AMA Group Ltd, in a commercial dispute. The case reached the court for a decision on costs and indemnity costs, following the plaintiffs' loss at trial. The plaintiffs made a Calderbank offer on Thursday, prior to the trial commencing on the following Monday, which the defendants responded to with a counter-offer on the same day. Both offers contained a term requiring the vacation of previous costs orders and were open for acceptance until 10 am on the Monday. The central legal issues were whether the compromise terms rendered the offers reasonable and whether indemnity costs were appropriate given that the court did not need to determine some of the issues presented by the plaintiffs. Additionally, the court had to consider if the timeframe for acceptance of the offers was reasonable under the circumstances.

The court analysed the Calderbank offers and their terms, concluding that the requirement to vacate previous costs orders made the offers unreasonable. The court held that indemnity costs were not appropriate as the court did not need to determine all of the issues raised by the plaintiffs. The court also found that the acceptance period of the offers was reasonable, considering the short notice and the urgency of the situation. Given these findings, the court determined that the defendants were not entitled to indemnity costs.

The court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and ordered that the defendants bear their own costs of the proceedings. This decision was based on the unreasonableness of the compromise terms in the Calderbank offers, the court's conclusion that indemnity costs were not appropriate, and the reasonableness of the acceptance period provided in the offers. The court's decision effectively denied the defendants' entitlement to indemnity costs and required them to bear their own costs.