November 23, 2021 – Family Law Act and Partition Act

“The F.L.A. authorizes the court to do whatever is necessary with the collectivity of spousal assets to bring about an equal division of them. It should be the statute of first resort in matrimonial disputes, but it is not necessarily the only one. I think it is significant that s. 14(a) of the F.L.A. states that “the fact that property is held in the names of spouses as joint tenants is prima facie proof that the spouses are intended to own the property as joint tenants”. This is a recognition of the identical legal title of both spouses to an undivided ownership in the whole of the property. In my opinion, it is wrong to say, as it was said in Scanlan v. Scanlan, that the F.L.A. ousts the jurisdiction of the Partition Act when dealing with jointly owned spousal property. The two statutes are not incompatible, but where substantial rights in relation to jointly owned property are likely to be jeopardized by an order for partition and sale, an application under the Partition Act should be deferred until the matter is decided under the F.L.A. Putting it more broadly, an application under s. 2 should not proceed where it can be shown that it would prejudice the rights of either spouse under the F.L.A.”

            Silva v. Silva, 1990 CanLII 6718 (ON CA) at 23