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Posts By: Angela Casey
14 Results“On Title” Versus “Entitled”: The Doctrine of Resulting Trust
A common estate planning technique to avoid probate tax is for a parent to transfer his or her house into joint tenancy with one of his or her children. That way, when the parent dies, the property passes by way of survivorship from the parent to the child without the need to go through probate…read more
Divisional Court Guidance on “Proper Support”
Bonnie and Danny had a 12 year common law relationship. In a modern twist on the typical fact scenario, Bonnie was the older, successful business woman and Danny was the younger man who left his job at Bonnie’s car dealership to look after things at home. At trial, Justice Greer found that they were very…read more
Will Challenges by Estate Trustees – A Hard Sell
If you take steps to administer an estate pursuant to a will or to otherwise behave as if a will is valid, you may lose the right to later challenge that will. In Neuberger v. York, a decision of Justice Greer released in November 2014, she considered a motion to dismiss a will challenge that…read more
Choosing a POA: A Litigator’s Perspective
Two things got me thinking about power of attorney litigation. I listened to a great program on CBC on Sunday, where the guests – an estate litigator in Toronto and an elder law specialist from the west – talked about the trend that many estate litigators have seen lately. That is, would-be heirs no longer…read more
Passing of Accounts: A Math Problem Explained
In a recent blog post entitled “Things Lawyers Know,” I laughed out loud when I read #13: “Lawyers are word, not number people. If their fee went up 10%, few lawyers would know how much extra they received.” Math often comes into play in an estates litigation practice, particularly in the context of a contested passing of…read more
What the Heck is the Deemed Undertaking Rule?
One of the best ways for a litigator to learn is to sit in open court watching other litigators suffer through embarrassing court room experiences. In one of my early days appearing on the Estates List, I had one such experience, and the litigator’s lesson that day centred on the often-misunderstood deemed undertaking rule. On…read more
Bozo Eruption of Secret Tapes: A Litigator’s View
We have been hearing a lot lately about secret audio/video footage – from late night wild rants at the Steak Queen to a pro-life liberal MP chided by a conservative sympathiser into calling Justin Trudeau’s recent stance on abortion a “bozo eruption”. If you google the words “secret taping”, a list of smart phone products appear,…read more
Court of Appeal: Promise to Gift House to Son Unenforceable
The recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Kavanagh v. Lajoie serves as a reminder to folks on the receiving end of a promise not to count their chickens before they are hatched. In 2005, Mark Lajoie’s father promised to gift him a house in Ottawa. The father then transferred title to the house to himself and…read more
Objections to Trustee Accounts Must Be Specific
In reasons delivered last week in Michipicoten First Nation v. Michipicoten First Nation Community Trust, Justice Varpio emphasized that objections to trustee accounts must be specific. If objections are too vague, then the objectors run the risk of having their objections struck. An added risk of delivering vague objections is that the lack of specificity will result…read more
Limitation Period Precludes Motion to Set Aside Releases
In the usual litigation battle, a release operates as a “shield” in the sense that if a beneficiary sues an estate trustee, the estate trustee can use the release as a defence. In Re: Sheard, the estate trustees were able to use signed releases to preclude them from having to pass their accounts for the period…read more