Trevor Owen

Following a five-day trial on spousal support and a pre-trial settlement on child support, both parties sought costs.

The court declined to award costs for the child support settlement due to divided success.

However, the court awarded the applicant costs for the spousal support trial, finding that she was largely successful on the major issues, including her entitlement to compensatory support.

The court also found the respondent engaged in unreasonable litigation behaviour, including failing to provide evidence in chief by affidavit and taking unreasonable positions.

The respondent was ordered to pay $65,000 in partial indemnity costs.

The applicant sought costs following a motion where success was divided.

The applicant argued the respondent's failure to disclose constituted bad faith under Rule 24(8) of the Family Law Rules, which would mandate full recovery costs.

The court found the respondent's conduct was careless and unreasonable, but lacked the malicious intent required for a finding of bad faith.

Due to the respondent's unreasonable conduct, the applicant was awarded costs.

However, the court found the applicant's claimed costs of over $24,000 were disproportionate to the value of the property in issue.

The court awarded the applicant $7,500 in costs on a partial recovery basis.

The applicant wife brought a motion seeking to join the respondent husband's father as a party, requesting interim spousal support, and seeking extensive financial disclosure regarding the husband's ATV rental business which had been transferred to his mother.

The court dismissed the motion to join the father due to lack of evidence connecting him to the impugned transactions and his health issues.

The claim for interim spousal support was dismissed without prejudice, as the husband's income had significantly reduced after relocating the business, and his efforts to re-establish it were deemed reasonable, precluding the imputation of income.

However, the court ordered extensive financial disclosure from both the husband and his mother to clarify the business's income and the nature of the transfer.