The taxpayer incurred legal costs in the course of his 2006 divorce proceedings, which centered around custody of the couple's child. An interim court order on consent in 2001 gave the taxpayer sole interim custody and the spouse 50% access with supervision, and imposed an obligation on the taxpayer to pay $350 in monthly child support to the spouse. Nevertheless, the child in fact stayed with the taxpayer alone because appropriate supervision at the spouse's house was not available.
The Minister disallowed the taxpayer's deduction of legal costs incurred in the taxpayer's unsuccessful claim to receive child support payments, on the grounds that because of the 2001 order the taxpayer had no pre-existing right to child support. Woods J. disagreed at para. 23: "The legislative obligation to support children does not cease with a court order, and especially a court order providing for interim support only." The Minister also argued, but could not establish in evidence, that the taxpayer had abandoned his claim for child support.