The second wife of an admitted bigamist has been ordered to pay him 50 per cent of the couple's joint assets as part of their divorce.

In his decision made public last week, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower ruled that, for the purposes of property division, Evangeline Ramirez and Benjamin Toquero were in a common-law relationship with each other for 16 years, even if their marriage was not valid.

Throughout the trial, Ramirez insisted she knew nothing about her husband's marriage to another woman in the Philippines in 1966 and therefore should not be required to pay him anything.

The judge disagreed.

Following a drawn-out and sometimes bizarre six-day trial, Gower found that "both parties were aware of Mr. Toquero's previous marriage when they were married in the Catholic Church in 1994,” adding that "It was a sham in order to satisfy the requirements of Ms. Ramirez' sponsorship of Mr. Toquero's immigration to Canada.”

The judge ruled that Ramirez had not done enough to persuade him that her ex-spouse deserved any less than half of the homes, vehicles and other assets the two owned together.

Toquero did not seek spousal support.

The pair, both originally from the Philippines, married in Whitehorse in 1994, two months after Ramirez sponsored Toquero to come to Canada as her fiancé.

They originally met while both were living abroad in the 1980s and connected mostly as pen pals.

During his testimony, Toquero insisted Ramirez knew he was married, and that it was her idea for him to say he was single when he immigrated to Canada.

He claims he kept up the lie in order to protect Ramirez.

Soon after his arrival, the two began working together running the cleaning business, B & E Janitorial.

Toquero also worked later at Walmart as a vehicle technician.

When the couple separated last year, the cleaning business was making about $18,000 a month, according to court documents.

The trial was originally scheduled to begin and end in September, but had to be drawn out a number of times.

At one point, it was stopped after Ramirez collapsed and appeared to suffer a panic attack while giving testimony.

There were a number of inconstancies in the evidence given by the former couple.

In his decision, Gower said he had problems with the credibility of the evidence given by both parties, but ruled "the credibility problems of Ms. Ramirez far outweigh those of Mr. Toquero.”

The judge listed 14 problems with Ramirez's testimony, including inaccuracies and mistakes in her financial statements and financial disclosures.

Aside from a single page from 2009, "Ms. Ramirez has failed to disclose any other documentation whatsoever to explain where the business' monthly income...was deposited,” the judge said.

Ramirez also breached multiple court orders when she started a new janitorial business and took over a number of the original company's contracts last year, the judge said.

Since the separation, Toquero has repeatedly asked his former partner for the opportunity to take over a few commercial contracts to supplement his income but Ramirez has consistently refused, documents say.

In the end, the judge ruled that because of a lack of proper documentation of the couple's debt or the market value of the pair's two homes, the only way to achieve a "practical and fair result” is to order all the couple's joint property be sold and the proceeds be divided.