Govt Must Pay Legal Costs Of Same Sex Couple
The Bermuda Government has been ordered by the Supreme Court to cover the legal costs for the same sex couple who fought for the legal right to marry on the island.
In May of this year, the court ruled in the legal case brought by Winston Godwin and Greg DeRoche, which followed their marriage application being declined by Bermuda’s Registrar-General, with the court ruling in their favour, saying “the common law discriminates against same-sex couples by excluding them from marriage.”
The ruling was handed down by Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons, who said, “I am of the view that the justice of the case calls for the following cost order: costs to the Applicants to be paid by the Defendants on an indemnity basis to be taxed if not agreed; no order of costs against the Defendants for the hearing of the constitutional summons.”
The 22-page Court judgement follows below [PDF here]:
