Superior Court Penalties I

Contempt

Contempt can most be generally defined as the violation of a court order. It is viewed by the court as a major penalty given that parties found in contempt may actually be ordered imprisoned in consequence. Fines are more common, however a party may also be required to take some action or comply with an order to purge their contempt. It is also possible that future participation in the case may be limited or denied until the contempt is purged. 49 family cases where parties were found in contempt were identified from entries in the database. A summary of these case and their outcomes can be found in Appendix D

For family cases where contempt was an issue the data is as follows

Party

Number

of cases

Contempted

Denied

Minor or no ..penalty

Male

Female

Summarized in percentage terms

Party

Number

of cases

Contempted

Denied

Minor or no ..penalty

Male

100

55.6

42.3

3.8

Female

100

47.8

52.2

8.7

% Men Contempted = 15 / 26 x 100 = 57.7 %

% Women Contempted = 11 / 26 x 100 = 42.3 %

Conclusions

It must be noted that 2 out of 11women contempted received minor or no penalties which is equivalent to receiving relief. Also 1 out of 15 men received a minor penalty, so after relief is considered the statistics are as follows

% Men Contempted = 14 / 23 x 100 = 60.9 %

% Women Contempted = 9 / 23 x 100 = 39.1 %

Contempt was the most equitable distributed of all the penalty categories The ratio of men contempted was less than 2 to 1 compared to women. Almost half of the cases brought before the court for contempt were denied for both sexes with the odds being 10 to 20 % worse for men. A detailed examination of the cases shows that women were primarily contempted for denials of access whereas men where contempted for defaulting on payments. Consequences for contempt may be quite severe. Both sexes received fines as a lesser result, and were ordered imprisoned for more significant breaches. cases resulted in custody of children being reversed for purposeful alienation of children from non custodial parents

Appendix D — Ontario Contempt Cases Studied

Sex..of

party

Outcome

1	L.A.G. v. M.E.F.G., 2004 CanLII 49976 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt for picketing ex wife’s house stayed because of criminal charges
2	V.T. v. V.S.1, 2006 CanLII 9157 (ON S.C.)	w	Abducts children, refuses to return them, criminal charges, 7 months additional for contempt of family court
3	Craig v. Craig, 2005 CanLII 50263 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt motion adjourned as disclosure produced, 1.5 K cost penalty
4	Coletta v. Jones Coletta, 2003 CanLII 2412 (ON S.C.)	w	Woman gets 30 days for selling farm her husband lived on
5	Fisher v. Fisher, 2003 CanLII 2119 (ON S.C.)	m	Mans contempt sufficiently purged
6	Jhuman v. Moakhan, 2005 CanLII 36266 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt for failure to pay support and violation of harassment order 10 K cost penalty, motion for variation dismissed, 15 K security deposit
7	Ramcharitar v. Ramcharitar, 2003 CanLII 1997 (ON S.C.)	m	Costs for contempt relating to custody and access
8	Goretti Pinho Mancini v. Mancini, 2003 CanLII 2329 (ON S.C.)	w	Contempt for denial of access, $ 500, man pays more for arrears
9	Zadegan v. Zadegan, 2003 CanLII 49378 (ON S.C.)	w	Found in contempt for failure to sell house but not in contempt for not admitting child was not in school and collecting support, sentencing hearing to be held
10	Einstoss v. Starkman, 2002 CanLII 2777 (ON S.C.)	w	Wife in contempt for denial of access, mans access varied
11	D.M.B. v. D.C.B., 2005 CanLII 24599 (ON S.C.)	w	Found in contempt for denial of access, no sanctions imposed
12	Milunovic v. Milunovic, 2004 CanLII 19101 (ON S.C.)	w	Not sufficient evidence
13	Moudry v. Moudry, 2005 CanLII 22220 (ON S.C.)	w	Found in contempt for denial of access and false allegations, custody given to man, 14.5 K cost penalty
14	Valente v. Valente, 2003 CanLII 1985 (ON S.C.)	m	45 days in jail unless he purges contempt and pay order and makes financial disclosure
15	D .K. v. D. K, 2003 CanLII 2365 (ON S.C.)	w	Wife not found in contempt
16	Atoe v. Atoe, 2003 CanLII 2218 (ON S.C.)	w	Wife not found in contempt for denying access
17	Bemrose v. Fetter, 2006 CanLII 15628 (ON S.C.)	w	Mans motion for contempt on access denied
18	Fisher v. Wenger, 2003 CanLII 2312 (ON S.C.)	m	Man found in contempt twice for selling property, first time 5 day imprisonment, second time sentencing hearing
19	Scott v. Jolicoeur, 2005 CanLII 2058 (ON S.C.)	m	Man gets 2 counts of contempt for harassment order, suspended sentence, ordered to say something nice about the other party on access
20	Wright v. Beckford, 2003 CanLII 2280 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt not proven, order for wife to refrain from contacting mans associates
21	Scribilo v. Scribilo, 2002 CanLII 2670 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt denied as no formal order was taken out
22	Wamsley v. Moore, 2003 CanLII 2269 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt motion against man denied
23	Kropf v. Kropf, 2003 CanLII 2155 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt motion against man denied
24	Bauer v. Bauer, 2006 CanLII 14400 (ON S.C.)	w	Contempt against woman for denial of access denied
25	Stone v. Stone, 2005 CanLII 2946 (ON S.C.)	m	Man in contempt for selling assets
26	Irwin v. Irwin, 2005 CanLII 8725 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt against wife for denying access dismissed
27	Fequet v. Petelka Fequet, 2003 CanLII 2200 (ON S.C.)	m	Motion for contempt against man for disclosure denied
28	J.L.C. v. S.B.L., 2006 CanLII 13790 (ON S.C.)	m, w	Both parents found in contempt through proceedings and ordered to mental exams
29	D.J.C. v. N.C., 2004 CanLII 47783 (ON S.C.)	w	Found in contempt alienating man, 10 K cost penalty, 30 days if not paid
30	A.F. v. I.V., 2006 CanLII 727 (ON S.C.)	w	Woman found in contempt for false allegations and denial of access, custody given to man, 5 K penalty
31	Dvernichuk v. Larouche, 2003 CanLII 2107 (ON S.C.)	m	Man found in contempt
32	Malerba v. Malerba, 2004 CanLII 34791 (ON S.C.)	m	Man in contempt for bankruptcy, 180 lump sum spousal support from pension to wife
33	Mgrdichian v. Mgrdichian, 2006 CanLII 13773 (ON S.C.)	m	Jailed twice for contempt, fraudulent conveyances, 2.4 million dollar lump sum for total support, 95 K arrears, 125 K cost penalties, 65 K fraud penalty
34	Fang v. Fang, 2004 CanLII 13068 (ON S.C.)	m	Man found in multiple contempt, charging order on house, sentencing hearing
35	Roscoe v. Roscoe, 2003 CanLII 2037 (ON S.C.)	w	Wife twice found not to be in contempt for denying access in interim motions
36	J.R. v. J.G., 2005 CanLII 14983 (ON S.C.)	w	Found not to be in contempt and man has violated orders
37	Visneskie v. Visneskie, 2003 CanLII 2265 (ON S.C.)	m	Motion for contempt for man smoking in car with child dismissed
38	Hamilton v. Hamilton, 2005 CanLII 47744 (ON S.C.)	m	Man found in contempt for disclosure, cost penalty
39	Paech v. Paech, 2004 CanLII 47780 (ON S.C.)	m	Man found in contempt for disclosure
40	Hockey-Sweeney v. Sweeney, 2002 CanLII 2721 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt motion against man dismissed
41	Mikan v. Mikan, 2004 CanLII 5062 (ON S.C.)	m	Mans motion for contempt against wife stayed
42	L.P.G.M. v. J.M., 2006 CanLII 5455 (ON S.C.)	w	Finding of contempt against wife overturned on appeal
43	Logiacco v. Papadopoulos, 2005 CanLII 5473 (ON S.C.)	m	Man not found in contempt for arrears
44	Swanson v. Swanson, 2004 CanLII 48679 (ON S.C.)	m	Man in contempt for not signing over house to wife and depleting bank account
45	Jonas v. Da Silva, 2003 CanLII 49354 (ON S.C.)	m	Man and his new wife sentenced to jail for contempt for fraudulent conveyances
46	Vandenelsen v. Merkley, 2003 CanLII 1965 (ON S.C.)	m w	Wifes contempt motion against man dismissed, wife found in contempt for abducting children, stayed until after criminal trial
47	Laurin v. Martin, 2005 CanLII 24596 (ON S.C.)	m	Contempt motion against wife dismissed