The appellants appealed a trial judgment dismissing their solicitor's negligence claim and awarding substantial indemnity costs to the respondents.
They also alleged a reasonable apprehension of bias against the trial judge.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the bias and negligence grounds, finding the trial judge's factual findings supported by the evidence.
However, the Court granted leave to appeal costs and reduced the trial costs award to $35,000, while maintaining the substantial indemnity scale due to the nature of the allegations made by the appellants.
The appeal was otherwise dismissed with no costs of the appeal.
