Read the full judgment text of HCA 008518/1998 on BabelCite. This High Court CFI judgment was delivered on 5 September 2000 before Hon Chung J.
Civil procedure – costs – interlocutory proceedings – re-amendment of pleadings – costs occasioned and thrown away by re-amendment – whether costs to be taxed and payable forthwith or in any event – principles governing immediate taxation of interlocutory costs – appeal from costs order of Registrar – test for appellate review of Master's costs discretion – costs of the hearing below – Court of First Instance – Plaintiff re-amended its Amended Statement of Claim by deleting substantial and discrete parts and abandoning a number of allegations – Defendants incurred substantial time, effort and expenses in their own pleadings, discovery of documents and draft witness statements, alleged to amount to about HK$520,000 – Defendants applied for immediate taxation of those costs – Registrar ordered costs to the Defendants in any event with no order as to costs of the hearing – Defendants appealed and Plaintiff cross-appealed – held: Defendants' appeal dismissed; Plaintiff's cross appeal allowed – the usual rule that costs of interlocutory proceedings are taxed in any event applies – immediate taxation is exceptional and 'penal', warranted only by conduct amounting to an affront to the court or analogous circumstances – related costs may be difficult to ascertain at an interlocutory stage and may be minute in relation to overall costs – Registrar did not err in following the usual rule – alleged 'present trend' of immediate taxation applies only to 'time' summonses extending prescribed time, not generally – the test on appeal from a costs order of the Master or Registrar is that the appeal should not be allowed unless the order was unreasonable or erred in law by failing to take into account relevant matters or taking into account irrelevant matters, and this test applies even where costs are the only issue – the Plaintiff was entitled to its costs of the hearing below because, although it did not expressly raise the difficulty of immediate taxation, it did so by implication by relying on the usual rule, and the Registrar effectively found in its favour – sympathy with a party's position does not justify departing from the rule that costs should follow the event – costs of the hearing below ordered to be paid by the Defendants in any event.
Legal issues: Whether costs of and occasioned by the Plaintiff's re-amendment should be taxed and payable forthwith · Test on appeal from a costs order of the Master or Registrar to a Judge in chambers · Whether there should be no order as to costs of the hearing before the Registrar
Outcome: Defendants' appeal dismissed; Plaintiff's cross appeal allowed. Costs of the hearing below to be paid by the Defendants in any event.
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