One of the most common threats a lawyer may hear from a beleaguered client is the cry that “I might as well quit work, if I have to pay that much to my ex-wife”. Another is “I’ll just leave the country and then he/she will get nothing.”
Usually these threats are spoken out of frustration and rarely are they acted upon, however, from time to time a parent will abandon his or her family, rather than obey a court order that is perceived by them to be onerous and unfair.
In a recent Ontario case, Hans Mills did just that. He left the country to avoid paying his ex-wife, Donna Mills, spousal and child support of $3772.00 per month, $2235.00 for the children and $1537.00 for his wife.
A very bleak situation for Ms. Mills who is caring for a 10-year-old with cancer in remission, a Downs Syndrome 14-year-old, a depressed teen, age 17, and a 19-year-old son on methadone treatment. How did everything go so wrong?
After separating in 2005, the Mills reached ann agreement in 2008 which gave Ms. Mills sole custody of the children, and the family home, valued at $1.2 million (with a $600,000 mortgage), in exchange for a payment to Mr. Mills of $175,000. Because she received the lion’s share of the equity in the home, she agreed to forego spousal support. Mr. Mills earned approximately $100,000 per year and would pay child support.
Three years after their agreement, money issues began to simmer and a trial was scheduled to deal with the problems that had arisen, including Ms. Mill’s alleged inability to work. In an interim application before the trial, the Court ordered Mr. Mills to pay his ex-wife spousal support, including retroactive support and court costs, in spite of the fact that she had received two-thirds of the family home.
Recognizing that the interim order was a precursor to worse things to come, Mr. Mills sold his house, cashed in his pension, paid his bills, and moved to the Philippines, a country where he had done business for years and a country that had no support treaty with Ontario.
Ms. Mills had always feared he would just leave and implored the government agency that collects child and spousal support to register a lien against his house and seize his Canadian and European passports, but to no avail. And then he was gone. His email to his ex-wife read:
“The result of the legal instrument which you recently designed and implemented
is that there is no possibility of a comfortable life or a (secure) retirement for me in
Canada at all. Therefore, I have left the country to seek greener pastures elsewhere
and will never return. Well done Einstein. Good luck and good bye.”
Ms. Mills is perilously close to financial, emotional, physical, and spiritual bankruptcy, but says she will not let her children down, despite the dire circumstances.
As for “Father of the Year”, his actions are despicable. His departure was fueled by a court order to pay spousal support, which he now uses to justify his decision to stop supporting his children. He has expressed hope that one day he can reconcile with his children, “but not in Canada, a morally bankrupt state”.
It is Hans Mills that is “morally bankrupt”.
Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang
Posted by Paul Forseth on December 17, 2012 at 11:40 PM
I had a similar case of international flight. A woman came to me wanting advocacy assistance, as her ex-husband had gone to a foreign jurisdiction, to avoid the financial consequences of divorce Court Orders. She bought in all her documents…a box full. After a careful read, I empathized with the dad, as he had been unfairly dealt with by the Courts, even after appeal. So being a professional man and very smart, he decided to exercise a desperate option, and reestablish his career elsewhere, by leaving the country as a last resort. He never abandoned his kids, and did his best to stay in contact, over the obstruction of the mother. He bought the kids things directly, so that mother could not get her hands on money. He paid for holidays etc. He was determined not to put money into the hands of his ex-wife. Upon review of the Court material, it was clear that the father tried to make the best out of a no-win situation. It was his recourse in response to the Appeal Courts and the biased Family Law system that was subject to manipulation by the mother (and her lawyer). The documents revealed that the Courts were unwilling to see how it was manipulated, and that there were other ways of looking at the best interest of children and created dependency. It was a rare case, but it opened my eyes to how the system had been used for malevolent objectives. Even after years of loosing, the mother was still headstrong in not accepting the reality of the sad situation, and she still wanted revenge and further litigation. By the time the mother came to see me for help, one child had matured and moved out on their own, and established a normal but geographically distant relationship with the father, and had disconnected from the mother. The family lost about a million, through legal fees and mortgage foreclosure etc. Because the father was a medical professional, he could quickly move and re-establish himself. Many fathers do not have these options when they cannot pay for competent legal representation, and the taxpayer funds the other side with a seemingly bottomless pit of litigators.
Posted by Paul on December 18, 2012 at 12:36 AM
Im in the situation where I paid a sh-itload of money to my ex (virtually all over our liquid savings) she then went after me in the courts to pay child support and am now paying 70,000 yen a month (around $US900) and currently that eats up a third of my part time take home salary. Come January it will be closer to 4/5ths. Court is not amenable to reducing payments as they decided thats what I can afford. Unlike the above guy I can no simply disappear overseas.