The Owners - Strata Plan 61162 v Lipman

The Owners of Strata Plan 61162 filed an action against Lipman, seeking damages for breaches of strata title legislation, negligence, and for an injunction. The case was heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The primary focus of the dispute was on the allocation of costs, particularly in light of the plaintiff's partial success and the procedural steps taken during the litigation, including mediation and various offers of compromise.

The court had to address several legal issues, including whether the general rule on costs should be departed from given the plaintiff's partial success, the treatment of mediation costs, and the reasonableness of rejecting offers of compromise. Furthermore, the court considered how costs should be apportioned where the parties had varying degrees of success on different claims, and whether interest on costs should be awarded given the unexplained delay in proceedings.

The court determined that, while the plaintiff had not succeeded on all claims, it was not unreasonable for the defendants to reject the offers of compromise and Calderbank offers given the minimal evidence available at the time. The court also ruled that the costs of mediation were costs of the proceedings, as the mediation was undertaken at the court's direction. In terms of interest on costs, the court held that no explanation for the delay was necessary before granting interest, given the extreme nature of the delay. The court concluded that costs should reflect the practical extent of success on different claims and ordered that costs be apportioned accordingly.

The final orders included the allocation of costs in a manner that reflected the varying degrees of success on different claims, the inclusion of mediation costs as costs of the proceedings, and the grant of interest on costs without requiring an explanation for the delay in proceedings.