Whall v Stamp (No 2)

In *Whall v Stamp (No 2)*, the applicant, Mrs Stamp, sought orders from the Court of Appeal of New South Wales concerning a costs order made against her in earlier proceedings. The respondent was Mr Whall. The dispute centred on Mrs Stamp's attempt to vary or set aside a costs order that had been made against her more than three months prior to her filing the current notice of motion.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether it had the power to grant the relief sought by Mrs Stamp. Specifically, the court had to consider whether her application to vary the costs order was competent, given that it was filed significantly out of time. Furthermore, the court had to assess whether the issues raised in her notice of motion were properly before it, particularly in light of the fact that they had not been raised in the original appeal proceedings.

The court reasoned that the orders sought by Mrs Stamp in her notice of motion, which aimed to vary or set aside the previous costs order, were incompetent. This was primarily because the application was filed out of time, exceeding the permissible period for such applications. The court also found that the substantive issues Mrs Stamp sought to raise were not part of the original appeal proceedings, and therefore, the court could not entertain them in this context. Consequently, the court refused the proposed orders relating to the variation of the costs order.

The court ordered that Mrs Stamp's notice of motion be dismissed, with the exception of the costs of the motion itself. Mrs Stamp was ordered to pay Mr Whall's costs of the motion. However, the respondent, Mrs Stamp, was granted a certificate under section 6 of the *Suitors’ Fund Act 1951* (NSW) in respect of the earlier Court of Appeal proceedings, excluding the costs associated with the current motion.