Benjamin J. Ingram

The parties separated after a 29-year marriage and negotiated a separation agreement.

The husband deliberately concealed assets and exploited the wife's known mental instability during negotiations, resulting in an equalization payment significantly lower than her statutory entitlement.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that separating spouses have a duty to make full and honest disclosure of financial information.

The Court restored the trial judge's finding that the agreement was unconscionable and his order compensating the wife for the difference between the negotiated payment and her statutory entitlement.

The parties separated after 12 years of marriage.

At trial, family assets were divided equally, and the trial judge ordered that the husband's contingent tax liabilities associated with his tax shelters should be shared equally by the spouses on an 'if and when' basis.

The Court of Appeal set aside this order, holding that the Family Relations Act precluded a freestanding order apportioning debt.

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal, holding that the Act does not preclude an order dividing a contingent liability that cannot be valued at the time of trial, and that fairness required both spouses to assume responsibility for the contingent liabilities associated with tax shelters from which they both benefited.