Australia, July 9 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement:

1 By my judgment delivered on 13 May 2025 (Gerald Jaworski v Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (No 4) [2025] NSWSC 457 ("Principal Judgment"), I dismissed an application brought by the Plaintiff, Mr Jaworski, seeking an order that the Defendant, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand ("CA ANZ"), indemnify him for the costs of proceedings that he sought to bring in CA ANZ's name against its directors, officers and former directors and officers. I observed in the Principal Judgment (at [75]-[77]):

"... Mr Jaworski has not satisfied me that he has a prima facie claim to be brought in the name of CA ANZ against its officers or that CA ANZ should pay the future legal costs of such a claim, in respect of the particular claims that I have addressed above or his claims taken as a whole. The matters to which I have referred above in respect of the particular claims are such that there is here no room for the whole to be stronger than the sum of its parts. I also bear in mind that, as I have noted above, many current and former officers of CA ANZ would be joined as defendants to the proposed proceedings, where they focus on events over that 10 year period and there has been significant change in the identity of CA ANZ's directors from year to year. Where those many defendants may be, but would not necessarily be, commonly represented, the costs involved in the conduct of those proceedings are potentially substantial and CA ANZ would have exposure not only Mr Jaworski's costs of pursuing the claim, but also to the Defendants' costs under a constitutional indemnity potentially available to them under its by-laws, and by way of an adverse costs order against it if the proceedings brought by Mr Jaworski were unsuccessful. This matter also tends strongly against making the order that he seeks.

For all of these reasons, Mr Jaworski's Amended Summons filed 24 February 2025 should be dismissed. Mr Jaworski did not suggest he wished to, or could, continue the proceedings at his own cost unless such funding was available form CA ANZ, and, in any event, the relief that he sought did not extend beyond the order for funding to any substantive relief against CA ANZ or its officers, directors or former officers or directors, so the determination of this question determines the whole of the proceedings. For these reasons, the proceedings generally should also be dismissed.

Mr Jaworski requested the opportunity to make submissions regarding costs orders, if his claim for relief was denied, and foreshadowed a submission that the circumstances of this case would justify an order that each party pay their own costs. I also recognise that, ordinarily, costs will follow the event, but I should permit Mr Jaworski the opportunity to make the submissions as to costs that he seeks, which will most efficiently be addressed in writing rather than by another listing of the matter."

2. I then made orders for submissions in chief and in reply as to costs, with the question of costs to be determined in Chambers. I now address the question of costs.

Applicable principles and submissions

3. It is, of course, uncontroversial that s 98 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) confers on the Court a wide discretion with respect to costs, and the Court has discretion to determine by whom, to whom and to what extent costs are to be paid; costs will ordinarily follow the event unless it appears to the Court that some other order should be made as to the whole or any part of the costs, in accordance with r 42.1 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) ("UCPR"). A successful party in proceedings has a "reasonable expectation" of being awarded costs against an unsuccessful party, unless there is good reason for that presumption to be displaced: Oshlack v Richmond River Council (1998) 193 CLR 72; [1998] HCA 11 at [22], [134].

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1975755db8dfe3c9e844ad28)

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