Legal Papers
Papers By: Angela Casey
9 PapersPassing of Accounts and Business Assets
Passing the Trustee’s Accounts When There Are Business Assets At the beneficiaries’ insistence, or at his own initiation, a trustee[i] may apply to court to pass his accounts. Once in court passing format, the accounts will list the deceased’s assets as of date of death, and trace any subsequent disposition of those assets. However, where…read more
Case Comment: Re: Estate of Dominico Grillo
Can an Ontario litigant bring a will challenge here to set aside a will made in Italy? This interesting question was recently answered affirmatively by Justice Newbould in the recent decision in Re Estate of Domenico Grillo. Read Angela’s case comment here.
Litigating Estate Disputes With Multi-Jurisdictional Assets
In today’s increasingly cosmopolitan world, it is not unusual for someone to own property in more than one jurisdiction. When a dispute arises with respect to the estate of a deceased with assets in multiple jurisdictions, there are several distinct but related issues that the estate litigator must consider. First, one must consider which jurisdiction’s…read more
Passing of Accounts – 2013
If a theme were to emerge from the contested passing of accounts cases that were decided in 2013, it would be “protect the innocent”. In some cases, this theme manifested itself in decisions to remove trustees who acted improperly or to surcharge trustees who misappropriated funds. In other cases, judges protected honest (albeit imperfect) fiduciaries…read more
2012 Recent Guardianship Cases – A Critical Analysis
Guardianship or power of attorney disputes are never pleasant. Unfortunately, such disputes usually involve family members and often drag up long standing, unresolved issues between family members. Litigants can quickly lose perspective, disregard the best interests of the incapable person, and engage in scorched earth litigation. As the population ages and lives longer, such family…read more
Passing the Trustee’s Accounts When There Are Business Assets
At the beneficiaries’ insistence, or at his own initiation, a trustee may apply to court to pass his accounts. Once in court passing format, the accounts will list the deceased’s assets as of date of death, and trace any subsequent disposition of those assets. However, where the estate assets include one or more businesses, the…read more
Update on Solicitors’ Negligence Issues
There are unique challenges faced by estates and trust practitioners when taking estate planning instructions. Estate planning is something that most folks are reticent to do in the first place – for many, it languishes on a list of “should do’s” for some time before something – a pending divorce, a scheduled plane trip, a…read more
A Practical Guide to Capacity Assessments
When the central issue in litigation is whether a person is capable or not, a capacity assessment can be an invaluable tool to assist the Court in making that determination. However, such an order is (and should be) difficult to obtain. To adopt the words of Justice Pattillo in Flynn et al v. Flynn ,…read more
Common Privilege Issues Faced by Estates Practitioners
Common Privilege Issues Faced by Estates Practitioners by Justin de Vries and Angela Casey