Dr. Peter Sutton

The appellant appealed the trial decisions regarding custody, equalization of net family property, spousal support, and costs following a high-conflict separation.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the custody appeal as moot since the children were now adults.

The court upheld the trial judge's calculation of net family property, finding no error in excluding the pre-marriage mortgage on the matrimonial home or in denying an unequal division.

The spousal support award of $10,000 per month and the discretionary costs awards were also affirmed, with the court emphasizing deference to trial judges in family law matters.

A high-conflict custody trial concerning three teenage children where each parent alleged parental alienation by the other.

The applicant mother sought sole custody of all children and suspension of the father’s access pending therapeutic intervention.

The respondent father sought sole custody of two children and joint custody of the third.

The court accepted the assessor’s opinion that the case was a “mixed” alienation scenario involving problematic parenting behaviour by both parties rather than pure parental alienation by one parent.

Given the children’s ages, experiences with each parent, and entrenched conflict, the court declined to change residential custody as requested and instead structured a divided custody arrangement combined with extensive therapeutic intervention and detailed parenting orders designed to repair parent‑child and sibling relationships.

The respondent father brought a motion to set aside an ex parte order that struck his pleadings for failing to provide financial disclosure and pay child support.

The court found that the previous judge only intended to strike pleadings related to financial issues, not parenting issues, making the broad order an error.

Applying the test for setting aside a default judgment, the court found the father had a plausible explanation for his default and an arguable case.

The court set aside the order in its entirety, granted brief periods of unsupervised access, and temporarily suspended child support enforcement to allow the father to stabilize his finances and pay for supervised access.

During a custody and access trial, the applicant brought a motion seeking to redact portions of a custody assessor’s notes, records, and report that referenced communications from a prior closed mediation.

The applicant argued that mediation privilege had not been clearly waived when she consented to the assessor obtaining information from the mediator.

The court found that the applicant knowingly signed a release permitting disclosure to the assessor and understood that information provided to the assessor could be disclosed in court under the assessor’s retainer terms.

The court further held that the applicant impliedly waived mediation privilege by later providing submissions discussing the mediation for the assessor’s consideration.

Given the parties’ consent and the potential prejudice to the integrity of the assessment if extensive redactions were allowed, the motion to redact was denied.