Morris v Riverwild Management Pty Ltd [2009] VSC 439 is a decision of Justice Pagone in an unusual dispute. A developer built some apartments at Falls Creek. Something obviously went wrong, because he and one of the purchasers of an apartment sued the architect, the builder, the structural engineer and his company, the supervising engineer and his company, and the building supervisor. The claimants entered into the following settlements with the defendants at around the same time:
- Architect: $1.4 million plus the claimants’ costs to be taxed on the Supreme Court scale (28%)
- Certifying engineer: $1.5 million inclusive of costs (30%)
- Builder: $175,000 all-in (3.5%)
- Building surveyor: $1.85 million inclusive of interest and costs (37%)
- Structural engineer: $79,000 inclusive of interest and costs (1.6%).
The claimants got a smidge over $5 million. The percentage borne by each respondent is shown above in brackets. The architect no doubt got a shock when the plaintiffs served a bill of costs for $2 million, including the costs of pursuing the other defendants. ‘I don’t think so!’ he objected, and Justice Pagone agreed (though a litigation estoppel based on facts I have not included meant that this was a Pyrrhic victory). The architect said if the claimants got all of their costs from him, they would get a part of their costs twice: first from him, and second from the other respondents who had paid settlements which included the costs of the claim against them. The part of the costs they would get twice was the costs which were not referable exclusively to the claim against the architect. Continue reading “Settlements unapportioned between costs and damages”