Reserved judgment — costs — quantification — contractual indemnity — pre-proceeding costs — proceeding costs — District Court Rules 2014, R 14.4(e) & 14.6(1)(b) — Hawkins v McGannon Motels Ltd [2018] NZDC 23829 — Black v ASB Bank Ltd [2012] NZCA 384 — Herron v Wallace [2018] NZHC 2638. The parties had been involved in a long-running dispute over the payment of legal costs arising from a problematic tenancy. An interim judgment in the proceedings had been issued, but afterwards the parties had failed to reach a resolution to their dispute. Therefore the matter returned to Court for final determination. The interim judgment had drawn a distinction between costs that were incurred prior to the court proceedings (pre-proceeding costs), and those that were incurred to cover the court proceedings (proceeding costs). The Court had been unable to quantify pre-proceeding costs, and the parties had failed to reach an agreement in their post-judgment negotiations, with the plaintiff reaching a figure of $48,598.79 and the defendant one of $38,500. However they proposed a compromise amount halfway between the differing figures. The Court agreed, awarding the plaintiff pre-proceeding costs of $43,549.40. Regarding the proceeding costs, the plaintiff sought $127,533.67 and argued that it had been necessary to bring proceedings because of the behaviour of the defendants, and that its solicitors' rates were reasonable. As to counterclaims brought in the interim judgment, the plaintiff submitted that the costs should lie where they fell while the defendant argued that it had been successful in the counterclaims so should be awarded costs in the amount of $25,307.50. The Court found that the plaintiff had been the successful party, albeit only partially successful. The defendant's claim to have been successful was without merit, but the fact that the plaintiff was only partially successful meant that it was appropriate to make a 20 per cent deduction from costs payable to the plaintiff. Each party had been successful on one of the counterclaims brought by the defendant and the Court determined that this merited a reduction from the final amount to be paid to the plaintiff. The Court reached an amount payable to the plaintiff of $55,600 and declined to increase the amount for expert witness costs, finding that these costs should lie where they fell. Judgment Date: 30 October 2020.