What if you divorce in 1991 and your separation agreement says that you will pay $4000 per month until death of your ex-spouse. You forget to include the fact that you will retire someday (2018). Upon retirement your income falls to $65,000 gross. This means all of your income goes to the ex-spouse. What do you do?
The Court of Appeal in Haworth v. Haworth 2018 145 OR(3d) 74 agreed that even though the wife could argue that ‘retirement’ was contemplated in 1991 when the agreement was made, the stupid wording of the 1991 separation agreement isn’t fixed in stone. Retirement is a ‘material change’ (even if it should have been foreseen in 1991 but was not written down).
These are the magic words to allow a change in the separation agreement. They are generally hard to prove. But the Court of Appeal had no choice here as the husband’s total income would have been paid to the ex-spouse if the court didn’t fix it.
