High Court determines that each party should bear its own costs in a family law application, where the husband had failed to comply with previous court orders (made by consent) due to financial difficulties, and where the wife was a person of high net worth.
Ruling on costs arising out of the judgment delivered by this court on 12th March, 2018 - each party seeks an order directing payment of his/her costs by the other - non-payment by the husband of significant sums of money which he was bound to pay to the wife following upon an order of this Court made, by consent, on 17th January, 2011 (the “Order”) - wife is a person who would be regarded as being of high net worth - Court made an made order alleviating the husband of the obligation to make any further capital payments to the wife, and also curtailing his maintenance obligations to the wife under the Order with effect from twelve months from the date that the Court handed down judgment - parties communicated with each other regarding the motions they issued - husband made proposal to Bank A in May 2010 indicating he had at the time a net worth of €18,421,000.00, whereas just a few weeks previously he had sworn an affidavit of means, in these proceedings, indicating that he had a negative net worth of €13,546,242.00 - disclosure of the proposal to Bank A in turn lead to a forensic examination of the contents of that proposal - husband was unable to comply with terms of order made on consent - no order for costs made.