Vong & Barma

[2025] FedCFamC1F 219

FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA

(DIVISION 1)

Vong & Barma [2025] FedCFamC1F 219

File number:

SYC 4931 of 2024

Judgment of:

HARPER J

Date of judgment:

2 April 2025

Catchwords:

FAMILY LAW – EX TEMPORE – COSTS – Where the wife seeks costs of interlocutory applications by the husband for appointment of a litigation guardian and injunctions – Where the proceedings were before the Court three times and the parties entered into consent orders – Where the wife seeks costs as agreed or assessed on a party/party basis – Where the husband’s application for a litigation guardian was inappropriate and should not have been brought on the basis of the available evidence – Where the husband’s conduct in bringing the application for a litigation guardian justifies an award of costs in the wife’s favour – Where both parties made offers in writing to resolve claims for injunctive relief – Where the ultimate consent position reached by the parties was closer to what was proffered by the wife than the husband – Where the conduct of the husband in relation to the injunctive orders sought does not justify an order of costs in the wife’s favour – Order for the husband to pay the wife’s costs of his interlocutory application as agreed or assessed as to 30 per cent only of those costs.  

Legislation:

Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) Pt VIII, ss 95, 96, 117

Cases cited:

Atkins & Hunt (Costs) [2017] FamCAFC 131

Fitzgerald (as child representative for A (Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania)) & Fish (2005) 33 Fam LR 123; [2005] FamCA 158

Parke & The Estate of the Late A Parke (2016) FLC 93-748; [2016] FamCAFC 248

Prantage & Prantage (Costs) [2014] FamCA 850

Division:

Division 1 First Instance

Number of paragraphs:

32

Date of hearing:

2 April 2025

Place:

Sydney

Counsel for the Applicant:

Mr Reynolds

Solicitor for the Applicant:

Broaden Legal

Counsel for the Respondent:

Mr Cummings SC and Ms Merrett

Solicitor for the Respondent:

Juris Cor Legal

ORDERS

SYC 4931 of 2024

FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA (DIVISION 1)

BETWEEN:

MR VONG

Applicant

AND:

MS BARMA

Respondent

ORDER MADE BY:	HARPER J
DATE OF ORDER:	2 APRIL 2025

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1.The Applicant Husband (“husband”) pay the Respondent Wife’s (“wife”) costs of the husband’s interlocutory application for relief forming part of his Initiating Application filed on 27 June 2024, as agreed or assessed as to 30 per cent only of those costs.

2.There be no order as to the costs of and incidental to the wife’s application for costs heard and determined on 2 April 2025.

Note:   The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court’s records.

Note: This copy of the Court’s Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit…