Racine v. Racine, 2015 ONSC 7678

COURT FILE NO.: D23640/12
DATE: 2015-12-08

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE – ONTARIO

RE: Anna Racine, Applicant

AND: Ralph Racine, Respondent

BEFORE: Mr Justice Ramsay

COUNSEL: B. MacDonald for the Applicant; Respondent represented by his guardian by order of Maddalena J.

ENDORSEMENT

[1] I granted custody, child support and equalization to the Applicant and denied spousal support to the Respondent [2015 ONSC 6932]. The Applicant asks for costs fixed at just over $40,000. The Respondent was not represented, but he asks for costs of $31,600 to compensate him for amounts spent on his three former lawyers.

[2] It is the Applicant who should get costs. She was unequivocally successful and she did better than her offer to settle. The trial would have proceeded more expeditiously, or might even have been unnecessary, if the Respondent’s litigation guardian had focused on the Respondent’s interests instead of the interests of the Respondent’s difficult relatives, including the guardian himself. The Applicant’s costs were increased by the Respondent’s failure to make prompt disclosure. I award costs on a partial indemnity basis to the offer to settle and on a substantial indemnity basis thereafter. I fix costs at $30,000 and order the Respondent to pay them forthwith. Two-thirds of this amount shall be enforceable as child support.

J.A. Ramsay J.

Date: 2015-12-08