Zivanovic & Anor v. Coles

The Supreme Court of Queensland considered a dispute between the applicants, George and Mirjana Zivanovic, and the respondents, Robert John Coles and Jennifer Gaye Coles, along with Trevor Stuart Farlow. The applicants sought declarations regarding the encroachment of dividing fences and a jetty on their property and associated relief. The respondents filed a cross-application asserting that the applicants' original application had been compromised. The applicants claimed that the dividing fences were not on the boundary line but on their property, causing tensions during construction. The applicants served notices under the Dividing Fences Act 1953, and negotiations ensued for many months. The applicants' solicitors made a final offer on 9 August 2006, which was accepted by the respondents' solicitor, Ms Miller, in a telephone conversation on 16 August 2006. However, the applicants' solicitor, Mr Brew, later claimed that the offer only applied to the property owned by the Farlows, not the Coles.

The court had to decide if the proceedings had been compromised by the acceptance of the offer in unequivocal terms. The court found that the offer of 9 August 2006 was indeed accepted in unequivocal terms in the telephone conversation between Ms Miller and Mr Brew on 16 August 2006. The court was satisfied that Ms Miller accepted the offer without any conditions, and Mr Brew's later claim that the offer only applied to the Farlows was not supported by the evidence. The court noted that the property damage claim had already been addressed in the offer of 9 August 2006, and previous negotiations had dealt with nuts and bolts issues in draft heads of agreement. The court concluded that the application was compromised, and the applicants' original application was dismissed with no order as to costs. The court declared that the principal proceeding had been compromised pursuant to an agreement reached on 16 August 2006 and ordered that the costs of the cross-applicants be paid by the cross-respondents to be assessed on the standard basis.