The Supreme Court of Canada has restored an additional divorce payment of $649,680 to a British Columbia farm wife whose ex-husband was found to have hidden some of their assets and taken advantage of her mental instability.

Nancy Rick, whose marriage to Berend Brandsema ended in divorce after 29 years in 2002, was awarded the extra money by a trial judge in 2006 but saw it taken away by the B.C. Court of Appeal in 2007.

In a judgment written by Justice Rosalie Abella , a seven-member Supreme Court panel sided unanimously with the trial judge on Thursday, saying that the appeal judges were wrong to think that any disadvantage Rick faced was erased by the fact that she had lawyers.

"It may well be that in a particular case, professional assistance will effectively compensate for vulnerabilities," the judgment said. "But the Court of Appeal appears to have assumed that the mere presence of professional assistance automatically neutralized vulnerabilities in this case."

The judgment accepted the findings of the trial judge, Harry Slade, on Rick's mental condition and other matters.

"After 17 days of trial, he found that at the time of the separation, the wife was a 'deeply troubled person,' and that her 'perception of reality [was] very significantly affected by an unhealthy condition of the mind,'" it said.

"He concluded that the husband knowingly took advantage of these vulnerabilities by accepting an agreement based on what he alone knew to be erroneous financial information," it continued.

The couple, who built up a dairy operation called Brandy Farms, agreed to split their assets evenly, but Brandsema exaggerated the farm's debts and took other steps to reduce her share, the judgment said.

"It was revealed at trial that a week before the wife vacated the matrimonial home, the husband had written a cheque to himself from the parties’ joint account for the sum of $79,954.36. He did not deposit this amount into the account of Brandy Farms Ltd. until February 2002, a month after the parties were divorced.

"He had also advanced $154,000 to the wife’s brother, a close friend of his. This money was deposited into term deposits in the brother’s name in July and August 2001, then redeemed by the husband and deposited into his own personal bank account in November 2001.

"These additional funds totalled almost a quarter of a million dollars. There was no mention of them in the husband’s sworn Form 89, nor was their existence ever disclosed to the wife during any of the negotiations."

Judge Slade was right to order the $649,680 payment, the Supreme Court said, ordering Brandsema to pay his ex-wife's legal costs as well.