The recent Ontario Superior Court case of Moody v Hirsh explores the issue of when a plaintiff is able to trace the money he or she paid to a defendant into the defendant’s own property. The decision demonstrates that the circumstances in which a court will make an order imposing a constructive trust over the defendant’s property […]
A new study reported on this week found that daughters are significantly more helpful than sons when it comes to taking care of their elderly parents. Referencing data found from surveying 26,000 Americans, it seems that daughters spend on average 12.3 hours a month looking after an elderly parent versus sons who spend on average 5.6 hours
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
Elizabeth Ann McLaughlin died at the ripe old age of 98. She was predeceased by her husband. Together they had six children, including Daniel. Daniel, as estate trustee, sought to rectify what he characterized as a solicitor’s mistake in his mother’s secondary will. For many years prior to her death, Mrs. McLaughlin had no relationship
A recent Court of Appeal decision from Alberta dealt with the interpretation of a holograph will. The Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision that the testator intended to create a trust but the trust failed since the objects of the trust were uncertain resulting in an intestacy. The case serves as a good reminder that
