WHO SHOULD BEAR THE COSTS?
37 By my orders of 23 March 2016, after receiving written and oral submissions on the topic, I ruled in favour of the applicants' application that all of the respondents, which includes the cross-claimant, should be responsible for the costs awarded pursuant to those orders.
38 I indicated at the time of that ruling that I would provide short reasons for the order that was made that each of the respondents be liable for the costs of the cross-claim.
39 The applicants say that the respondents sought to limit their liability to pay costs in relation to the extensive cross-claim, which was pursued only by Coretell (the first respondent). The applicants argue that, by doing so, the respondents are maintaining the strategy of the third respondent, Mr Kleyn, of using Coretell to shelter the assets of the group, which reflects the finding I made in the primary reasons at [269]. Having heard evidence in relation to the financial position of the cross-claimant, I am far from persuaded that the cross-claimant would have the capacity to meet an appropriate costs order. The applicants submit that this is an affront to justice as the respondents were prepared to use the cross-claimant to run 'every claim imaginable' with or without foundation in the hope of invalidating the patents, but wish now to avoid the consequences of having done so. The applicants submit that it is just and equitable that the Court exercise its discretion under s 43 of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) to award costs in this manner. The applicants also refer to the High Court decision of Knight v FP Special Assets Ltd (1992) 174 CLR 178 (at 192-193), in which it was observed that it is appropriate to recognise a general category of cases in which an order for costs should be made against a non-party: where the party to the litigation is an insolvent person or a man of straw, where the non-party has played an active part in the conduct of the litigation, and where the non-party or some person on whose behalf he or she is acting or by whom he or she has been appointed has an interest in the subject matter of the litigation. As the High Court said (at 193): 'Where the circumstances of a case fall within that category, an order for costs should be made against the non-party if the interests of justice require that it be made.' The applicants contend that it is clear that Mr Kleyn, Mincrest and Kleyn Investments ought to additionally bear the adverse costs of the cross-claim for at least the following reasons:
(1) The bulk of the evidence was directed to the cross-claim and it took the vast majority of the hearing time. It was plainly a defensive cross-claim, made in response to infringement allegations against each of the respondents. Each of Mr Kleyn, Mincrest and Kleyn Investments had an interest in, actively participated in and stood to benefit from the outcome of the cross-claim. In this regard, each of those entities relied on all of the invalidity grounds pleaded in the cross-claim in their defence of each and every infringement allegation made against them. It was not a cross-claim peculiar to the cross-claimant.
(2) The cross-claimant was a 'man of straw'. It is clear, and I have already found, that the respondent companies were operated jointly and interdependently and that Mr Kleyn was the controlling mind and will of the group, and had previously engaged in conduct to divest the cross-claimant of assets and transfer them to other companies within the group (namely, Mincrest and Kleyn Investments) in order to frustrate the judgment: see my findings at [59], [302], [382] and [393] of the primary reasons.
(3) There is cause for concern that Mr Kleyn may see to it that Coretell is stripped of any assets it does have, just as he did so with Mincrest in the previous proceedings before Justice Barker: see my findings at [393] of the primary reasons. AMC submits that the observations of Middleton J in Re Sturmer and Town of Beaverton (1912) 2 DLR 501 are apt, where his Honour said (at 572):
The Court always had power to award costs against the real applicant when the motion was made by him in the name of the man of straw for the purpose of avoiding liability. The courts were never so blind as to be unable to see through the flimsy device nor so impotent as to be unable to act.
40 Although the respondents refer to the order as a non-party costs order, I doubt whether that description, while technically accurate, properly reflects the position for the reasons set out above (not least of which is that all of the respondents adopted Coretell's assertions in the cross-claim). The respondents argue that it would be unjust to make a 'non-party' costs order, and that the cases in which that will be done would be 'rare and exceptional': see, for example, Vestris v Cashman (1998) 72 SASR 449 per Lander J (at [64]). They argue that such an order should only be made in the clearest of cases. The respondents appear to dispute that the cross-claimant could be described as being 'a man of straw'. My firm impression is that the description is apt. I say that because the business records, which were examined closely at trial, revealed that, apart from a brief period in late 2012, Coretell did not employ any of the numerous staff involved in the tool business, nor did it incur operational expenses, such as the cost of plant and equipment, office expenses and related costs inevitably associated with a very substantial core tool business. Apart from a single motor vehicle, it did not own any of the plant or equipment at the Maddington Warehouse. I concluded that Mr Kleyn established the cross-claimant to avoid the consequences of litigation while continuing to exploit the cross-claimant through the other incorporated respondents. This process included divesting assets from companies exposed to litigation. I have already made these findings that Mr Kleyn's attempt to transfer and separate the business to the cross-claimant was a fabrication, which cannot now be challenged at this juncture of the first instance proceedings.
41 There is no doubt at all that Mincrest, Mr Kleyn and Kleyn Investments all played an active role in the proceedings. Mincrest and Kleyn Investments transferred significant sums of money to the cross-claimant, which were used, in part, to fund the proceedings. Mr Kleyn himself was centrally involved in the entirety of the respondents' case for the reasons I made abundantly clear in the primary reasons. Each of Mincrest, Mr Kleyn and Kleyn Investments have a commercial interest in the subject matter of the litigation, including the patent infringement. Mr Kleyn has personally participated in the relevant acts of exploitation. The evidence at trial was replete with examples of distribution agreements, supply invoices, and manufacturing invoices for core tools in the name of the other corporate respondents. There is no doubt that each respondent had an interest in and stood to benefit from the fruits of the litigation as pleaded, including the cross-claim.
42 As already noted above, it is of particular significance that each of Mincrest, Mr Kleyn and Kleyn Investments made positive pleadings in their defence that the patents were invalid and relied upon each of the grounds in the cross-claim in their defence. As noted in Probiotec Limited v The University of Melbourne (2008) 166 FCR 30 by Rares J (at [62]-[63]), Finn J agreeing, this is an important factor to take into account. See also Farmitalia Carlo Erba SrL v Delta West Pty Ltd (1994) 28 IPR 336 per Heerey J (at 339).
43 There is no doubt, in my view, that the costs order against all respondents is appropriate and necessary in the interests of justice.