CITATION: Wirta v. Wirta, 2016 ONSC 4970
COURT FILE NO.: FC-15-2209-1
DATE: 20160804
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE - ONTARIO
RE: Gregory Thomas Wirta, Applicant
AND
Erin Elisabeth Wirta, Respondent
BEFORE: Madam Justice Mackinnon
COUNSEL: Alison Boyce, for the Applicant
Allan T. Hirsch, for the Respondent
HEARD: In writing
Costs ENDORSEMENT
[1] This was an application by the father under the Hague Convention seeking the return of the children to Washington State. The application was dismissed. The Respondent mother is seeking her costs fixed in the sum of $9,000. In support of her claim for costs, she relied on her offer to settle delivered in April 2016, which was in identical terms to my order.
[2] The Respondent seeks an order for no costs or for the much lower amount of $2,500. He relies on his obligation to pay his own legal fees which exceeded those of the Respondent and on a post hearing settlement which he says augers well for the family. The inference he would have me draw is that a costs award might upset the progress made to date. The Applicant also points to the travel costs he has incurred post-hearing to exercise access to the children.
[3] The Applicant has not provided any evidence of financial inability to pay costs, and as Respondent’s counsel points out, in one of his messages to the mother, the father said, “I make more than enough for the three of us”.
[4] Accordingly, despite his counsel’s eloquent plea for compassion, I conclude that the mother is entitled to reasonable costs, which I have fixed in the all-inclusive amount of $ 7,000.
Madam Justice J. Mackinnon
Date: August 4, 2016
CITATION: Wirta v. Wirta, 2016 ONSC 4970
COURT FILE NO.: FC-15-2209-1
DATE: 20160804
ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
RE: Gregory Thomas Wirta, Applicant
AND
Erin Elisabeth Wirta, Respondent
BEFORE: Madam Justice J. Mackinnon
COUNSEL: Alison Boyce, for the Applicant
Allan T. Hirsch, for the Respondent
ENDORSEMENT
J. Mackinnon J.
Released: August 4, 2016