Four Melbourne Demons directors, including an ex-Iluka Resources boss, have failed to recoup all legal costs from proceedings launched by former club president Glen Bartlett in a WA court.
Four Melbourne Demons directors, including an ex-Iluka Resources boss, have failed to recoup all legal costs from proceedings launched by former club president Glen Bartlett in the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
Mr Bartlett last year lodged a writ in the state’s Supreme Court, naming Melbourne Football Club president Kate Roffey, club directors David Rennick, Steve Morris, and David Robb, who was the chief executive of Iluka Resources, as defendants.
The legal action revolves around alleged defamatory statements in three publications made between September 2021 to June 2022, over Mr Bartlett’s exit as club president.
In a judgment delivered today, WA Supreme Court Justice Marcus Solomon dismissed the defendants’ application for a special costs order for the fees incurred during the proceedings, which ended with Mr Bartlett withdrawing the action earlier this year.
Justice Solomon found the defendants' application was made with undue delay.
In January, Justice Solomon ordered the legal proceedings to be transferred to the Supreme Court of Victoria because of the number of ties to Melbourne with the alleged defamatory comments originally published in the Herald Sun newspaper and 3AW radio.
However, today’s judgment revealed Mr Bartlett discontinued the Supreme Court action in March with Justice Solomon ordering the defendants to be entitled to costs of the action.
The judgement said the defendants applied for a special costs order of $321,562.75, claiming the most that could be recovered under the ordinary scale would be about $85,000.
Justice Solomon said the defendants were given ample opportunity to consider and seek orders to costs.
“The present matter involves a delay of nearly five months from the provision of reasons to the parties, and two months from the plaintiff's notice of discontinuance,” he said in his judgment.
“That is by no means a delay that can be described as extraordinary. However, there are particular factors that compound the issue of delay in this matter.
“Costs were a live issue between the parties for some six weeks after the provision of reasons.
“Although ample opportunity was provided, and although costs orders were clearly in the defendants' contemplation, the defendants never indicated that special costs orders would be sought, and instead at all times positively sought costs orders in the ordinary terms.
“I am therefore of the view that the defendants' application was made with undue delay and ought not to be granted.”
The defendants claimed the cost incurred during the proceedings was about $414,000, the judgment said.
In his judgment, Justice Solomon said it was not unusual that costs incurred by a party to litigation would exceed the usual costs scale.
“As the case managing judicial officer, I have had conduct over the matter since the writ of summons was filed in September 2022, and my experience of the matter does not appear to justify a costs order of over $320,000, and certainly not in excess of $410,000,” he said.
Despite withdrawing the WA Supreme Court proceedings in March, Mr Bartlett launched a legal action against Ms Roffey, Mr Morris, Mr Rennick, and Mr Robb in the federal court’s Western Australian registry in June.
