Family proceedings
MB v KB and others [2024] All ER (D) 01 (Jan), [2023] EWHC 3299 (Fam)
The High Court, Family Division, ruled on various costs points in dispute in respect of an application by the applicant father in which he had sought the summary return of the second and third respondent children to Qatar following their removal to the UK by the respondent mother. That application had been dismissed. It fell to be determined, among other things, whether: (i) an order that the father should have paid those costs should have been granted; and (ii) the father should have paid the costs of his unsuccessful application for a disclosure order against the Home Office. The court held, among other things, that: (i) the father had not behaved reprehensibly in the conduct of the litigation or otherwise taken an unreasonable stance and there would be no order for costs; and (ii) the application could not have been properly categorised as either amounting to reprehensible behaviour on behalf of the father or as representing an unreasonable stance on his part and there would
