In Lewis v. Adesanya the court allowed the mother’s motion, dated September 2013, for a variation of child support retroactive to the date of the previous March 2012 order.
The father had engaged in blameworthy conduct by failing to disclose a significant increase in his income as of 2012, contrary to the terms of the order, which required him to provide annual financial disclosure. The mother had sought financial disclosure from the father in June 2012 but he did not send her his income tax information until May 2013.
The court held despite the mother’s four months delay in bringing her variation motion; it was outweighed by the father’s blameworthy conduct in grossly underpaying child support. The court found that immediate payment of the retroactive child support would create undue hardship for the father as he was remarried and had another child.
Instead the hardship could be addressed through a reasonable repayment arrangement of monthly instalments. Based on the evidence of the father’s actual income received in 2012 and 2013, the court calculated his arrears to be totalled to $12,735.
Lewis v. Adesanya, 2014 ONCJ 326 (Sherr J.).