Top Five 2005: Tierney-Hynes v Hynes

Each year at OJEN’s Toronto Summer Law Institute, a judge from the Court of Appeal for Ontario identifies five cases that are of significance in the educational setting. This summary, based on these comments and observations, is appropriate for discussion and debate in the classroom setting.

Tierney-Hynes v Hynes (2005), 75 OR (3d) 737 (CA)

This case discusses the court’s ability to vary a dismissal or termination of a support order, if one of the spouses’ financial situation changes.  Breaking from past precedent, the Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously determined that new amendments to the Divorce Act gave the court the jurisdiction to vary a dismissal of an application for spousal support.  The Court of Appeal wrote that the amendments recognized that “courts require significant flexibility to tailor a just result for individual cases given the multitude of circumstances in which divorcing spouses find themselves” [para 73].  The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal of this decision. The full decision is available here.