Marital Protection Proceedings: Cost Allocation Based on Family Law Principles Over Partial Success

In an appeal regarding cost allocation in marital protection proceedings, the appellate court upheld the lower court's decision to award the opposing party (the appellant) the entire procedural costs, despite the appellant achieving a partial success. The court reasoned that in marital protection cases, cost allocation under the relevant procedural code is not solely determined by the outcome of the case ($\S 119$ Abs. 1 ZPO), but must also account for the family law nature of the proceedings, specifically considering the economic circumstances and the mutual support obligation between spouses ($\S 121$ Abs. 2 lit. c ZPO), which justified saddling the economically stronger party with all costs when the other party lacked the means to pay. Furthermore, the court affirmed the practice that the marital protection judge is not obligated to rule on a preliminary request for an advance on legal costs by one spouse.