Can a successful litigant be held liable for the costs of a successful plaintiff who deliberately provides false evidence at any stage of the litigation?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Briante v. Vancouver Island Health Authority, 2015 BCSC 807 (CanLII):
In Brown v. Lowe, 2002 BCCA 7, the majority ruled that where a successful litigant either deliberately provides false evidence at any stage of the proceedings or, short of deliberate untruthfulness, the litigant exhibits a light regard for the truth, this may justify depriving that litigant of costs: see paras. 149 to 150 and 163 to 165.
Such conduct is highly germane to costs, given that the purpose of discovery is to permit the parties to “judge the strength of the discovered party's case and determine, among other things, the wisdom or otherwise of settlement”, a purpose which is defeated by giving false evidence: Brown v. Lowe at para. 150.
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