National Post (National Edition)
Husband wants wife to pay for separation
TORONTO • For the past six months, former Toronto Symphony Orchestra CEO Jeff Melanson has been on the road, seeing the magic of Walt Disney World in Orlando, catching World Series fever in Chicago, and hiking through the Brandywine Falls Provincial Park in British Columbia.
But he is now asking a court to order his estranged wife, McCain’s heiress Eleanor McCain, to help pay for his two high-profile lawyers working on his ongoing separation from her.
“I am incapable of funding my ongoing participation in this litigation from my own resources,” Melanson wrote in court documents filed in November. “Without the assistance … I will be unable to carry on with this litigation and I will be deprived of access to justice.”
He also accuses McCain of delaying tactics to hike up his bills in what has been an acrimonious split filled with toxic allegations.
In response, McCain lawyers questioned Melanson’s need for interim payments because of his “extensive” travel.
Melanson’s social media posts between Aug. 27 and last week showed him visiting at least 32 different locations across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Melanson spent October travelling from B.C. to Yukon, the Northwest Territories and back. In November, he travelled to Chicago, Washington, across Oregon and California.
This month, Melanson returned to California, and was in Mexico last week. His travel was documented on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, where his posts show him smoking cigars on a beach, and scenes of the Chicago cityscape and the mountains in Lillooet, B.C.
McCain’s lawyers compiled a list of each stop that spans three pages in the court documents. The court documents reveal dozens of pages filled with photos from his travels.
Although Melanson provided banking records to the courts, they did not include what was spent during his travels, and McCain’s lawyers are looking to obtain that information along with credit-card statements and personal income-tax returns for 2014 and 2015 in an attempt to argue that Melanson should not receive the interim payments.
Melanson’s legal bills to pay two lawyers working on his separation — along with another two lawyers who defended his legal team in October — have gone beyond $200,000 since McCain filed for an annulment in March 2016.
McCain had a net worth of $365 million when she signed a $5-million marriage contract with Melanson on April 24, 2014. She is “more than capable” of paying the $125,000 in interim costs to pay for his legal fees through a settlement conference expected to take place in early 2017, Melanson wrote.
McCain is also appealing a decision to allow Harold Niman, one of Melanson’s lawyers, to continue to act on his behalf, making Melanson believe “she was willing to do whatever it would take to create additional cost for me.”
Not only does Melanson blame McCain for hiking his legal fees in court, but he also said her past actions resulted in him losing his position at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Melanson lost his job shortly after McCain filed for an annulment and accused him of tricking her into marrying him, sexually harassing a former employee and having a profile on Ashley Madison. Although he’s had job interviews, the “negative” media coverage “evidently made me a less than attractive candidate.”
“(McCain) will stop at nothing to ruin me both professionally and financially,” he wrote.
Even after he sold his downtown Toronto condominium for $1.175 million, Melanson wrote that his debts are more than double his assets. He also took a $75,000 loan from a close friend, which he claims has already gone completely toward his legal fees. He hasn’t worked since losing his job, and hasn’t accepted any monetary gifts. According to court documents, he’s living off of the severance package given to him when he left the TSO.
Melanson wouldn’t reveal how much the package is worth, but his T4 form for 2015 states that his employment income was $535,266.70.
In a financial statement he filed alongside his motion in November, Melanson placed his total annual income at $420,000. A letter from Niman, to McCain’s lawyers confirms this amount consists solely of the severance package. His yearly expenses, however, nearly reach $497,000.
The case is to resume in court on Thursday.