Restrictions OK
Jurisdiction Employment Relations Authority - Auckland
Reference No AA 12A/10
Determination date 26 May 2010
Member K J Anderson
Representation M Ryan ; P Wicks
Location Auckland
Parties Lloyd-Barker v The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Auckland Inc
Summary COSTS - Unsuccessful unjustified dismissal claim - Partially successful unjustified disadvantage claim - One day investigation meeting - Respondent sought $10,000 contribution to total costs of $15,000 - Respondent acknowledged tariff based approach but claimed applicant’s rejection of Calderbank offer supported higher award - Applicant claimed no justification for award higher than daily tariff - Applicant alluded to fact respondent charitable organisation that usually had legal services provided pro bono and no evidence to support costs claim provided - Respondent claimed no evidence provided because of applicant’s earlier propensity to place information on Facebook page - Found while normally Authority wished to see evidence of costs incurred would accept respondent’s experienced and credible counsel’s undertaking expenses incurred provable - Authority accepted costs claimed reasonable - Found as applicant only moderately successful and weight of evidence clearly and substantially against him unreasonable for applicant to have rejected Calderbank offer - Found respondent more probably than not incurred unnecessary preparation costs as result and those must be factored into costs award - Found on other hand, but not of great weight, applicant successful on one unjustified disadvantage claim - Found while applicant’s financial circumstances mentioned no evidence of them provided - Found but for Calderbank offer would have awarded $4,000 costs - Factoring in Calderbank offer and in all circumstances award of $7,000 appropriate - Applicant to pay $7,000 contribution to respondent’s costs
Result Costs in favour of respondent ($7,000)
Main Category Costs
Cases Cited PBO Ltd (formerly Rush Security Ltd) v Da Cruz [2005] 1 ERNZ 808;T & L Harvey Ltd v Duncan [2010] NZEMPC 36
Number of Pages 4
PDF File Link: aa 12a_10.pdf [pdf 19 KB]