David A. Sloane

The Director of the Family Responsibility Office sought a Temporary Default Order against the payor for child support arrears totaling over $52,000.

The payor argued he was unable to work due to a medical condition and that he had prepaid support through a matrimonial home refinancing transaction.

The court rejected the payor's evidence as uncorroborated and found the medical letter inadmissible.

The court held the payor failed to demonstrate a valid reason excusing his default and ordered him to pay ongoing support plus a nominal amount toward arrears, with a suspended committal term for future default.

Following a motion concerning better particulars, striking the statement of claim, and transfer of venue, the defendant sought partial indemnity costs of $8,000–$10,000.

The court noted the defendant’s primary success was obtaining a transfer of the proceeding to London but found the motion was premature and that several claims for relief were rejected.

The court also observed that the plaintiff’s pleading unnecessarily complicated the proceeding with multiple causes of action.

Concluding that both parties achieved limited success and lost something through the motion, the court determined that fairness required each party to bear their own costs.

The defendant brought a motion to strike the plaintiff’s statement of claim or compel further and better particulars, and sought transfer of the action from Kitchener to London.

The court held that pleadings should contain concise material facts rather than evidence and that motions to strike should only succeed in the clearest of cases.

Several paragraphs of the statement of claim were struck where they duplicated issues in a related London action or pleaded matters involving parties not before the court.

Other allegations were permitted to stand, with leave granted to amend certain pleadings to clarify material facts.

The action was ordered transferred to London so that related proceedings concerning the same property dispute could be managed together.

Following the release of the main appeal decision regarding child support, the parties made written submissions on costs and the disposition of a $6,000 payment into court.

The Court of Appeal ordered the $6,000 paid out to the respondent for child support arrears and stay motion costs.

The court upheld the trial judge's costs award of $15,000 to the respondent, noting her greater success and the appellant's unrealistic position on child support.

The court also awarded the respondent partial indemnity costs of the appeal fixed at $9,500, emphasizing the appellant's greater ability to pay and his failure to voluntarily pay child support.

The appellant father appealed a trial judgment ordering him to pay child support based on an imputed annual income of $30,000.

The father had quit his job as a tool and die maker and enrolled as a full-time university student.

The Court of Appeal held that 'intentionally' under section 19(1)(a) of the Child Support Guidelines does not require bad faith or a specific intent to evade support obligations.

The court upheld the finding that the father was intentionally under-employed but reduced the imputed income to $16,500, reflecting his capacity to work part-time while studying.

The court also varied the retroactive support period to account for times the father provided childcare and was on academic probation.