CIVIL PROCEDURE — Discontinuance — Costs — No consent to discontinue without paying costs — Plaintiff sought leave to discontinue with no order as to costs — Proceedings lacking practical utility — Both defendants impecunious — Defendants’ cross-claim abandoned — No right by way of defence and set-off to recover any amount exceeding the debt owed to the plaintiff — Litigation had begun to “feed on itself” — Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 12.1.

COSTS — Discontinuance — Usual rule that discontinuing party pay defendant’s costs — Power to order otherwise — Plaintiff sought leave to discontinue with no order as to costs — Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) (UCPR), r 42.19(2).

Tim Castle SC represented the Respondent.

Reasons for the decision can be found here.