Later in life after the end of a first marriage, people often start new relationships. It has often been assumed that so long as the parties live apart, maintain separate residences, have their own incomes, raised their own separate families, there is unlikely to be a devastating financial burden imposed by the mere existence of a relationship. Wrong!
Once again the Ontario Superior Court is breaking new ground in the spousal support area. After Shore J.’s decision in Climans v. Latner (2019), 144 O.R.(3d)743, it doesn’t matter that she has never lived with you. It doesn’t matter that she had her own family, her own house and her own income. What matters is that you introduced her to 14 years of the high life at Muskoka and in the Florida condo. Now you will pay her $53,000 a month indefinitely.
The definition of ‘spouse’ under the Ontario Family Law Act, which is the trigger to obtain support orders, seems to have an ever-expanding scope. The requirement of ‘cohabiting’, previously strictly construed, can now be found in a summer vacation stay.
