Steven Joyce awarded $269,000 in costs after suing NBR

Monday, 15 June 2020

Steven Joyce did not seek damages, so none were awarded, but his costs came to $298,291.55.

Former National government minister Steven Joyce has been awarded costs of nearly $269,000, after winning a defamation case last year against NBR publisher Fourth Estate Holdings Ltd, and its owner Todd Scott.

High Court Justice Pheroze Jagose released his decision following a defamation trial centred on a column written by commentator Matthew Hooton, and tweets about it from Scott. Written in March 2018, the article was critical of Joyce's time in government.

Hooton issued an apology as part of a legal settlement with Joyce. But NBR and Fourth Estate Holdings Ltd continued to defend against defamation claims from Joyce.

Joyce did not make a claim for damages, so none were awarded, but Justice Jagose has awarded Joyce costs against Fourth Estate and Scott.

* Steven Joyce takes defamation over Hooton column to High Court

Matthew Hooton issued an apology as part of a legal settlement with Joyce.

* NBR staffer who 'deserved to be fired' awarded $9600 for unjustified dismissal

In the judgment dated June 11, he said Joyce's solicitor and client costs came to $298,291.55.

Fourth Estate and Scott argued that some of the costs were “not properly recoverable” because they related to aspects of the proceeding for which NBR should not be held responsible, and were “entirely unreasonable for the work involved”.

That included more than $17,000 incurred by Joyce in connection with an “aborted first trial”.

Joyce had provided extracts from his solicitors’ time records and copies of invoices, along with evidence comparing his solicitors’ hourly rates with those charged by other large New Zealand law firms.

Justice Jagose disagreed with NBR's argument that: 'Mr Joyce is well entitled to whatever approach he can afford and choose to afford – but when it comes to recovering solicitor client costs, he can only recover so much as are reasonable to his adversary.'

That was not correct, he said.

'The NBR stands to indemnify Mr Joyce for his solicitor and client costs. Whether those are reasonable to the NBR is irrelevant.'

The court action had involved nearly 500 hours of lawyers’ time and labour for about 22 months at just less than a $480 blended hourly rate, and it was a specialised and technical area of law justifying significant experienced senior input, he said.

'Mr Joyce has apportioned the costs between each Fourth Estate and Mr Scott as incurred identifiably for one or other, and otherwise on a 60/40 division between them.

'The NBR complains the latter division is arbitrary, and Mr Scott’s “republication” liability only should see that reduced to an 80/20 division.

'Such a characterisation unduly diminishes Mr Scott’s guiding role as the NBR’s sole director, shareholder, and publisher, and 'the separate defamatory nature of [his] endorsement' of the truth of the article’s defamatory comments,' Justice Jagose said.