Federal Court of Australia

Milkins v Dioceses of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (St Joseph’s Primary School Wonthaggi) (No 3) [2021] FCA 1421

ORDERS

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1.    Starnet Legal Pty Ltd and Mr DJ Hancock of counsel are to bear personally the legal costs of the respondent incurred in relation to its interlocutory application dated 1 July 2020, including the costs related to the preparation of the submissions on costs filed by the respondent on 1 November 2021.

Note:    Entry of orders is dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

O’CALLAGHAN J:

1    In Milkins v Dioceses of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (St Joseph’s Primary School Wonthaggi) (No 2) [2021] FCA 1103 (Milkins (No 2)), I made orders striking out [13]-[19] and [32]-[45] of the applicant’s amended statement of claim (ASOC) filed on 19 November 2019, on the basis that the impugned paragraphs wholly failed to plead any proper cause of action.

2    I also made an order that the legal representatives for the applicant file and serve any submissions or evidence in relation to the question of whether they should personally bear the costs of the respondent’s application by 4:00pm on 4 October 2021, being 21 days after the date of the order.

3    This proceeding is related to VID 107 of 2019, in which I made similar orders in respect of a strike-out application in relation to the amended statement of claim in that proceeding. See Harvey v Dioceses of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (St Joseph’s Primary School Wonthaggi) (No 2) [2021] FCA 1102 (Harvey (No 2)), which records the substance of my reasons in relation to the strike-out applications in both proceedings. The applicants in each proceeding have engaged the same legal representatives to represent them.

4    These reasons should be read together with the reasons in VID 107 of 2019, Harvey v Dioceses of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (St Joseph’s Primary School Wonthaggi) (No 3) [2021] FCA 1420 (Harvey (No 3)), and will be published simultaneously.

5    As Milkins (No 2) records, the impugned paragraphs of the ASOC, and the written submissions filed by both parties, in this proceeding were “cookie cutter” versions of the paragraphs impugned and submissions made in Harvey (No 2). The submissions filed by both parties on the question of costs were similarly “cookie cutter” documents across both proceedings. And the correspondence set out in Harvey (No 3) between the parties, and the legal practitioners and my chambers, relates to both proceedings.

6    Accordingly, I will make the same order I made in Harvey (No 3) that Starnet Legal Pty Ltd and Mr DJ Hancock of counsel are to bear personally the legal costs of the respondent incurred in relation to its interlocutory application dated 1 July 2020, including the costs related to the preparation of the submissions on costs filed by the respondent on 1 November 2021.

Associate:

Dated:    17 November 2021