Court File and Parties

Court File No.: FS-23-39504 Date: 2024-07-17 Superior Court of Justice - Ontario

Re: JULIA VERNIKOVA a.k.a. IULIIA KOLVAKH, Applicant/Respondent in Appeal -and- MAKSYM KOLVAKH, ALEXANDRA ABRAMIAN, BRIGITTA TSEITLIN, Respondents/Appellant

Before: FL Myers J

Counsel: Svetlana Cocieru, for Julia Vernikova Alexandra Abramian and Brigitta Tseitlin, for Maksym Kolvakh

Read: July 17, 2024

Endorsement

[1] The parties have brought a consent motion in writing in Form 14B under Rule 14 (10) of the Family Law Rules, O Reg 114/099.

[2] The parties have a proceeding in the Ontario Court of Justice. The Respondent below, Maksym Kolvakh, has appealed an order of that court to this court.

[3] The parties have now reached a form of settlement of the issues under appeal that they ask this court to approve and implement. The settlement order proposed involves setting aside the order under appeal on consent and implementing the parties’ new agreed terms.

[4] I am not prepared to set aside the order below on consent. There is nothing before me indicating that the court below made a reversible error. If the parties have made a deal on the merits of the proceeding before the Ontario Court, then that is where the settlement should be implemented. They are then free to dismiss the appeal on consent.

[5] This court is not the court managing the substance of the proceeding. The only way this court can change the order below is if this court first makes a jurisdictional finding entitling it to impose alternative relief i.e. there is a reversible error in the order under appeal. Absent an error, changes to an order, such as settlement of the proceeding, should be made in the court in which the proceeding is being carried.

[6] It is possible to consent to an appeal being allowed where a party concedes that the judge below made a reversible error. I, for one, would still want to be satisfied that the position is at least tenable. But I am not prepared to exercise this court’s appellate jurisdiction to set aside an order made by a judge without a showing that there is a proper basis to do so.

[7] The motion is therefore dismissed.

FL Myers J

Date: July 17, 2024