Canada Case Law

Pike v. Wight

Court

Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal

Application to admit additional evidence on appeal dismissed as irrelevant to issues on appeal; no reversible error found in trial judge’s qualification of treating physician within scope, credibility findings, treatment of business account, division of TFSA/RRSP and accounts receivable, occupation rent calculation, lump-sum spousal support award and costs; appeal dismissed and respondent awarded costs in this Court at Column 3.

Source excerpt

• Spousal support
• Matrimonial property division
• Occupation rent
• Admissibility of expert evidence
• Additional evidence on appeal
• Standard of review

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Finnbogason v. Norseman

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Family law reasons on property division, exclusion of settlement funds, spousal support, and divorce. The court ordered unequal division of Lynwood Road equity and dismissed support.

• Matrimonial property division
• Spousal support
• Excluded property under family law act s.85
• Re-apportionment under family law act s.95
• Divorce
• Foreclosure

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Salloum v. Salloum

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

Third‑party gratuitous payments by the paternal grandfather toward matrimonial home expenses do not satisfy the father's statutory personal child support obligations; the father is credited only for matrimonial expenses he personally paid (half of mortgage/taxes for Jan 2012–July 2015), resulting in a net retroactive child support liability which is to be satisfied by apportioning matrimonial property proceeds.

Source excerpt

• Divorce
• Child support
• Parenting/decision making
• Matrimonial property division
• Third‑party payments
• Equalization

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Oliver v. Oliver

Court

Nova Scotia Court of Appeal

Although the appellant raised arguable issues, he failed to demonstrate irreparable harm or that the balance of convenience favoured a stay; alternative means of satisfying the judgment existed, and the appellant had not come to court with clean hands by failing to comply with an earlier unchallenged interim order — therefore the stay was denied and motion dismissed.

Source excerpt

• Stay of execution
• Fulton test
• Matrimonial property division
• Spousal support
• Bank drafts vs corporate funds
• Clean hands doctrine

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Partridge v. Bain

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

Court excluded Kempt Shore real estate, the contents of three 40-foot storage containers, the camper and related items as business assets; held the 2007 Chevrolet Silverado matrimonial; found some disputed pre-separation credit card debts not shown to be matrimonial while insurance premiums to preserve a motorcycle post-separation were matrimonial; denied unequal division of respondent's pre-marriage pension and RRSP contributions under s.13; ordered specific tax-free interspousal rollovers and transfers and an equal division of the remaining matrimonial net value with agreed offsets and dead…

Source excerpt

• Matrimonial property division
• Characterization of business assets
• Valuation
• Pension and rrsp division
• Unequal division under s.13
• Debts and post-separation obligations

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Charapovich v. Charapovich

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

Recognition of the Belarusian divorce was refused because, absent proof of Belarusian law, the presumption under Civil Procedure Rule 54.04(2) is that Belarusian law is the same as Nova Scotia law; recognizing the foreign divorce would therefore deprive the petitioner of a statutory right to a matrimonial property division in Nova Scotia and that result is contrary to public policy. The court cannot use inherent jurisdiction to create post‑divorce property rights or to fill inter‑jurisdictional legislative gaps, particularly given the federal/provincial division of powers and lack of proven f…

Source excerpt

• Recognition of foreign divorce
• Public policy exception
• Matrimonial property division
• Inherent jurisdiction
• Proof of foreign law

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Bezanson v. Bezanson

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

At the pre-trial stage the requested corporate tax returns and financial statements for the previous three years are prima facie relevant to issues of income for support and valuation of shareholdings given the petitioner’s status as a named principal in the shareholders' agreement, evidence of transfers from directors' accounts and the intermingling of personal and corporate funds; therefore the companies must produce those documents to counsel subject to implied undertaking. The request for T4 slips of all persons related to the petitioner is overbroad and is denied.

Source excerpt

• Disclosure of documents
• Non-party production
• Child support guidelines
• Matrimonial property division
• Shareholders' agreement
• Director's loans

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Squires v. Squires

Court

Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal

The applications judge did not err: partition/subdivision was speculative and not properly pleaded or particularized so impractical for interim adjudication; ordering sale of the property as a single lot "as is, where is" with a 90% of combined-appraisal acceptance threshold was a lawful exercise of discretion; the appellant failed to meet criteria for admitting additional evidence on appeal; appeal is dismissed and the interim order is affirmed with specified date revisions.

Source excerpt

• Matrimonial property division
• Partition/subdivision
• Interim orders
• Sale "as is, where is"
• Appellate admission of fresh evidence
• Judicial discretion in interim relief

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Wintrup v Adams

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

Divorce granted; date of separation fixed at June 28, 2015 based on contemporaneous communications and tax returns; spousal support denied because petitioner failed to establish compensatory or non‑compensatory entitlement and remained self‑sufficient; under the Matrimonial Property Act presumed equal division was displaced where equal division would be unfair because respondent proved non‑consensual $200,000 withdrawal from his joint account was used toward the Spinnaker property, leading to an unequal division and an award of $268,019 to respondent, and a specified allocation of remaining m…

Source excerpt

• Divorce
• Spousal support
• Matrimonial property division
• Date of separation
• Testimony by video conference
• Jurisdiction

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Mohammadpoor v. Merati

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia had jurisdiction to grant the divorce; it declined to transfer the matter to Iran on forum conveniens grounds; the Mahr for 700 gold coins was not enforceable as pleaded given evidentiary deficiencies and proportionality concerns, but the court ordered corollary relief reflecting the parties' Iranian proceedings by directing the respondent to pay 100 Bahar-e Azadi gold coins to the petitioner; the claimed student loan and RBC line of credit were not proven to be matrimonial debts and remain the respondent's sole responsibility; the respondent must return any p…

Source excerpt

• Divorce
• Corollary relief
• Mahr (marriage contract)
• Forum conveniens
• Matrimonial property division
• Matrimonial debts

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