Turkmani v Visvalingam (No 2)

In *Turkmani v Visvalingam (No 2)*, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered an application for costs following an earlier appeal. The original dispute concerned a building contract, and the appeal had resulted in the appellant succeeding on some grounds but failing on others. The court was asked to determine how the costs of the appeal and the proceedings below should be allocated, particularly in light of the appellant's partial success and the respondents' alleged inefficient conduct.

The primary legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the grounds on which the successful appellant failed were clearly severable from those on which they succeeded, and whether the overall conduct of the appeal had been inefficient. The court also had to consider the appropriate orders for the costs of the appeal itself and the costs of the proceedings in the primary court, in light of the outcome of the appeal.

The Court of Appeal reasoned that while the appellant had achieved some success on appeal, the grounds on which they failed were not clearly severable from the successful grounds. Furthermore, the court found that the conduct of the appeal had been inefficient, which warranted a departure from the ordinary rule that costs follow the event. Consequently, the court ordered that the costs of the appeal payable by the respondents to the appellant should not include the costs of preparing certain documents ("blue books" and "red book") or the costs of the current application. The court also varied the costs order made by the primary court, ordering that the appellant pay the respondents’ costs of the proceedings below on the ordinary basis.