Zhang v Telco Asset Management Limited

Yan Zhang appealed against a decision of the Employment Court and a related costs decision, which were made in favour of Telco Asset Management Limited. The appeal was heard by the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, consisting of Kós P and Courtney J. The appellant, Zhang, appeared in person while the respondent was represented by T P Cleary. The court dismissed Zhang’s application for leave to appeal and granted Telco’s application for costs.

The central legal issues in the appeal were the validity of the appellant’s application for leave to appeal and the entitlement of the respondent to costs for the appeal. Zhang’s application for leave to appeal raised over a dozen questions of law, none of which had any merit. The court had to determine whether Telco was entitled to costs for the appeal, despite the fact that the judgment did not explicitly order Zhang to pay costs.

In dismissing Zhang’s application for leave to appeal, the Court of Appeal found that none of the questions of law raised had merit, and Telco had to respond to them. The court held that there was no good reason to depart from the usual principle that the party who fails in an appeal or application should pay costs to the party who succeeds. As such, the court ruled that Zhang should pay costs in accordance with Telco’s memorandum as to costs dated 10 June 2020. Zhang did not dispute the amount of costs claimed by Telco, and the court ordered costs of $11,233, which included $1,673 for the application to extend time and $6,214 and $3,346 for the respective applications for leave to appeal.