October 14, 2022 – Domestic Contracts and Incomplete Financial Disclosure

“Nothing in the FLA precludes a litigant from entering into a domestic contract without full financial disclosure.  Where a spouse, chooses not to pursue further disclosure, with the benefit of independent legal advice, the litigant cannot resile from the consequences of that decision unless he demonstrates that the other spouse’s financial disclosure was inaccurate, misleading or false: Quinn v. Epstein, Cole LLP, 2008 ONCA 662, paras. 3-4.

In any event, in Butty v. Butty, 2009 ONCA 852, 99 O.R. (3d) 228,  at para. 54, the Ontario Court of Appeal stated that “.. a party to a marriage contract cannot enter into it knowing of shortcomings in disclosure and then rely on those shortcomings as the basis to have the contract set aside”.  Thus, given that Mr. Kruger was of the view that there had been “no disclosure at all”, it is too late for the Respondent to complain when the need for disclosure could have been addressed at the time that the terms of the marriage contract were negotiated.”

         Gorman v. Sadja, 2020 ONSC 6192 (CanLII) at 29 & 38