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Delta Electricity v Blue Mountains Conservation Society Inc.

País/Territorio
Australia
Tipo de la corte
Otros
Fecha
Oct 18, 2010
Fuente
UNEP, InforMEA
Nombre del tribunal
Court of Appeal of New South Wales
Juez
Beazley
Basten
Macfarlan.
Número de referencia
[2010] NSWCA 263
Idioma
Inglés
Materia
Agua, Cuestiones jurídicas
Palabra clave
Normas sobre emisión Normas sobre calidad del agua Normas sobre calidad ambiental Calidad de las aguas dulces/contaminación de las aguas dulces Normas Normas sobre efluentes residuales Normas sobre ruido Acceso-a-la-justicia
Resumen
Blue Mountains Conservation Society ('BMCS') commenced proceedings in the Land and Environment Court seeking a declaration that Delta Electricity ('Delta') had polluted the waters of the Cox’s River in New South Wales, in contravention of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997. BMCS contended that the proceedings were brought in the public interest and filed a notice of motion seeking an order pursuant to Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005, r 42.4 limiting the maximum costs recoverable by the parties to the proceedings to $10,000, or an amount specified by the court. BMCS contended that it was only able to proceed with the litigation if an order limiting costs was made. The application was opposed by the Delta. On 9 September 2009 the Land and Environment Court ordered that the maximum costs that may be recovered by a party to the proceedings was the sum of $20,000. The appellant appealed against her Honour’s interlocutory order, principally contending that: (i) her Honour erred in making an order to protect the respondent’s assets to the exclusion of other relevant considerations: those other relevant considerations included the usual rule that costs follow the event and are compensatory in nature, and that the underlying purpose of r 42.4 is to ensure the proportionality of costs to the complexity of proceedings; and (ii) it was not reasonably possible to categorise proceedings as public interest litigation at the outset. The appeal was dismissed by majority with no error found in the approach adopted by her Honour Justice Pain of the Land and Environment Court. Delta was ordered to pay the costs of BMCS costs.
Texto completo
COU-156694.pdf