Armidale legal battle: Council and chief executive Susan Law ordered to pay councillors legal costs in NSW Land and Environment Court

The council and Ms Law were ordered to pay the legal costs of the five councillors on Tuesday.

NSW Land and Environment Court Judge Brian Preston ruled ARC and Ms Law had failed to prove that the councillors would force ARC to deny Ms Law procedural fairness if it terminated her contract.

Judge Preston argued councillors Margaret O'Connor, Jon Galletly, Debra O'Brien, Dorothy Robinson and Ian Tiley were merely doing their job by raising matters where they felt the performance of the council and general manager fell short.

"One would have envisaged, with the argument expressed in this way, that the respondent in the proceedings would have been the council, being the person who threatens to deny Ms Law procedural fairness and thereby breach the Act," Judge Preston said.

"But reality in this topsy turvy case is like the world imagined by Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 'nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't'."

Judge Preston dismissed the argument that the council would be forced to breach the Act if the councillors moved a motion to debate and vote on firing Ms Law.

He also dismissed the idea that Ms Law could not, or had not, been given a fair opportunity to have her voice heard on a decision to remove her as general manager.

"One would have thought that the appropriate remedy for such a threatened breach by the council would have been for the council itself to give Ms Law a fair opportunity to be heard, that is to say to remedy the breach, rather than seek a declaration that the council will be in breach by continuing to fail to provide Ms Law a fair opportunity to be heard," he said.

"But this is yet another illustration of the 'curiouser and curiouser' nature of this case."

The councillors initially moved to have Ms Law's contract terminated at an extraordinary meeting in April.

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That meeting did not go ahead because ARC and Ms Law sought an injunction in the NSW Land and Environment Court to temporarily restrain the councillors from attending and voting.

It was adjourned until June 10 and will return to the council on Thursday.

Since then, Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock has dismissed all 11 councillors and appointed administrator Viv May, after she felt it was unable to conduct civic business as a result of the contentious legal proceedings.

The court heard that ARC was the driving force in the legal proceedings and that Ms Law had merely "adopted and followed the council's case and its running of the case".