Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 273

Summary: - Costs of the action. They are awarded only against the losing party. Ordering the successful litigant to bear them. Permissible in the cases exhaustively specified in Article 121 of the Law of Procedure and subject to the court's absolute discretion. Absence of any of these cases. Its effect. The court has no authority permitting it to order the successful party to bear the costs of the action and must order the losing party to bear them. Rule: It is established in the jurisprudence of this Court that, pursuant to Article 119 of the Law of Procedure, costs are awarded only against the losing party, namely the person who brought or defended the action without right. The matter of ordering the successful litigant to bear costs—in the circumstances specified in Article 121 of the same Law—falls, according to the express wording of the provision, within the court's absolute discretion. If none of these 3 exhaustively specified cases exists, the trial court has no authority permitting it to order the successful party to bear the costs of the action, and it must order the losing party to bear them.