Kate Smirnova

Following a five-day family law trial where the respondent was entirely successful, the respondent sought full recovery costs of $139,675.71.

The court found that the respondent beat her offers to settle and that the applicant acted in bad faith by hiding income, failing to make disclosure, and advancing spurious claims to drain the respondent's resources.

The court awarded the respondent her full claimed costs of $139,675.71, enforceable through the Family Responsibility Office as child and spousal support.

The parties separated after a 20-year marriage.

The applicant husband claimed he had no assets, lived on loans from friends, and sought an unequal division of net family property in his favour.

The respondent wife claimed a resulting trust in the matrimonial home, equalization, and support, alleging the husband hid assets and income.

The court found the husband failed to make full and frank disclosure, hid foreign assets, and received substantial undisclosed income and gifts.

The court granted the wife a resulting trust in the matrimonial home, imputed an annual income of $349,544 to the husband, awarded the wife a lump sum spousal support payment of $434,784, and ordered the net proceeds of the matrimonial home be paid to her in satisfaction of her claims.

The applicant father brought an urgent, without-notice motion for a stay pending appeal of an order granting the respondent mother leave to travel to Sudan with their ten-year-old child over the holidays.

The court applied the three-part test for a stay and found that the applicant failed to demonstrate a strong case on appeal, that the alleged irreparable harm was highly speculative, and that the balance of convenience favoured the child's best interests in taking the trip.

The motion for a stay was dismissed.