Does the court have discretion to refuse an order of costs to a successful party in a long term spousal support action?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Ashlie v. Ashlie, 2010 BCSC 1101 (CanLII):

It seems to me that the defendant has been substantially successful. The court does have a discretionary power to refuse an order of costs to a successful party “in order to preserve a precarious division of family assets or to offset an onerous long term spousal support obligation.” See Seminof v. Seminof 2007 BCSC 361 (Edwards J.) at para. 12. That does not seem to be the case here.

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