The wife, in Meint & B Pty Ltd [2026] FedCFamC1A 25, also appealed the Costs Order made against her in favour of the Intervener, B Pty Ltd.  This was separate to her appeal in relation to the property settlement generally.  The matter also came before His Honour, Campton J, on 11 February 2026 with Judgment delivered on  
23 February 2026.  The Order for costs was a significant one in that the Wife was required to pay the Interveners $99,916.55.   

The Orders sought by the Wife could be said to be doomed from the outset as some of those Orders infringed upon the rights of the intervener and others were in direct contradiction to the terms of the shareholder’s agreement.  The wife had the opportunity, well before the hearing, to withdraw the defective parts of her Amended Initiating Application and indeed she was invited to do so by the intervener’s solicitors.  The interveners were subsequently joined as a party to the proceedings. 

The wife amended her application shortly prior to the hearing however, that did not remedy the difficulties posed for the interveners who then outlined those issues in their Case Outline filed three days prior to the hearing.  On the first day of the hearing the matter was stood down to allow the wife to further amend and deal with these issues. 

The wife then withdrew that part of her application relating to the interveners who, nonetheless, remained a party to the proceedings and indeed one of their witnesses was required for cross-examination.  When the issue of costs was to be decided by the trial judge the wife argued that from the first day of the hearing, after she had further amended her application, the interveners could have withdrawn making them no longer a party to the proceedings, the difficulty with that argument, which was rejected, was that the wife required one of the intervener’s witnesses for cross-examination, in which case it was necessary for their participation in the proceedings to continue. 

His Honour found no ground of the appeal had merit and dismissed the appeal, as well as making a Costs Order against the wife in the fixed sum of $15,000. 

Meint & B Pty Ltd — If a party’s application seeks orders that infringe the rights of an intervener or directly contradict a shareholders agreement, that party should withdraw those defective parts promptly when invited to do so, as delay in doing so will not shield them from a significant costs order in favour of the intervener — here, $99,916.55 at trial and a further $15,000 on appeal.