Liam Malcolm Sangster

The court considered competing motions regarding the matrimonial home: the respondent sought exclusive possession and a transfer of the home into his name, while the applicant sought partition and sale under the Partition Act.

The court found that both motions were, in substance, for final relief and analyzed them accordingly.

The court held that the respondent had not established grounds for exclusive possession or for a transfer of the home, and that the applicant was entitled to an order for sale, but not exclusive control of the sale process.

Directions were given for the sale and for the holding of proceeds in trust.

Costs were awarded to the applicant on a partial indemnity basis.

The Applicant Mother sought primary residency of her son, Franky, and orders related to the Respondent Father's alleged breaches of prior orders and Franky's counselling.

The court dismissed the Mother's motion, maintaining Franky's primary residence with the Father.

The court found that Franky's stated views and preferences, his success in the Father's care, and the potential harm of forced counselling on an adolescent outweighed the Mother's claims of parental alienation and the findings of a non-court-appointed counselling centre.

The court declined to make findings of breach due to insufficient and untested evidence.

The applicant mother sought a nesting arrangement with primary care for their child and pro-rata sharing of matrimonial home costs.

The respondent father agreed to nesting but sought a shared parenting regime.

The court ordered a temporary, without prejudice, shared parenting nesting arrangement with a four-day rotation, finding both parents capable and involved, and that the high conflict was detrimental to the child.

The court declined to order pro-rata cost sharing for the matrimonial home, stating both parties benefit equally from the arrangement.

In this motion for temporary child support, the respondent mother sought an order for child support for the two children of the marriage, which the applicant father resisted.

The parties shared parenting time, necessitating the application of section 9 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines.

Due to conflicting financial information and a lack of child expense budgets, the court imputed incomes for both parents and calculated a set-off amount.

The court then adjusted this set-off to account for the father's higher standard of living and debt burden, ultimately ordering the father to pay $300 per month in temporary child support.

The court declined to award costs due to unnecessarily lengthy affidavits containing irrelevant information.

The applicant father sought to maintain jurisdiction in the Ontario Court of Justice over custody and access matters involving his son, who had been relocated to Japan by the respondent mother following a mobility order granted in August 2017.

The court determined that while it had jurisdiction when the proceedings were commenced in 2016 (when all parties and the child were physically present in Ontario), it no longer had jurisdiction after the child's relocation to Japan.

The court found that the criteria under section 22(1)(b) of the Children's Law Reform Act could no longer be satisfied, specifically regarding substantial evidence availability, real and substantial connection to Ontario, and balance of convenience.

The court stayed the proceedings.

This addendum on costs addresses the quantum of costs following a trial judgment.

The Plaintiffs by counterclaim sought $59,582.17, while the Defendant by counterclaim proposed $20,630.00.

The court applied Rule 57 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and principles from appellate cases, emphasizing that costs awards must be fair and reasonable, reflecting what the unsuccessful party should pay rather than the successful litigant's actual costs.

Considering factors such as time spent, counsel experience, rates, result achieved, complexity, conduct, and proportionality, the court awarded the Plaintiffs by counterclaim $45,000.00, inclusive of fees, disbursements, and HST.