Does a successful party have to contribute to each other’s costs if they are unsuccessful in litigation?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Webber et al. v. Singh et al., 2005 BCSC 224 (CanLII):
The decision in King v. On-Stream Natural Gas Management Inc., [1993] B.C.J. No. 2283 (S.C.) stands as authority for the proposition that where the unsuccessful parties acted jointly in pursuing the litigation, those parties will be jointly and severally liable for the successful parties’ costs in circumstances because the successful party should not have to bear the burden of pursuing each unsuccessful party for his or her proportionate share of the costs award. In such circumstances, the unsuccessful parties should have accounted for the contingency of losing and will thus be forced to seek contribution as between themselves.
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