Gail Evans died intestate on July 30, 1992. She was survived by her two sons from a first marriage, Richard and Donald, and by her second husband, Carlton. Carlton was the administrator (i.e. estate trustee) of Gail’s estate. The parties agreed Carlton was entitled to a preferential share of $75,000 and one third of the […]
Effective November 18, 2013, there are some important procedural changes affecting estate, trust, and capacity matters in Toronto. For some time now, the Toronto court has maintained a separate “Estates List” to hear all matters relating to the administration of trusts and estates and substitute decision making. As an estates litigator, I have been an
Courts are sometimes asked to determine if a “testamentary-like” document is a will. In British Columbia, an executor brought an action to prove in solemn form that a questionnaire that the testator (“Ms. Garnett”) filled out and signed before two witnesses shortly before her death was a will that could be submitted for probate. Ms. Garnett was
In estate disputes, it is common for parties to try to claw back into the estate bank accounts that were held jointly with the testator before death. The law provides a mechanism to do this – a resulting trust. Briefly, a resulting trust works as follows: any time property is transferred to someone else for
In what circumstances will a court order a plaintiff to undergo a mental examination to determine whether she is a party under a legal disability who has to be represented by a litigation guardian? This was one of the issues for the court to determine in the recent Ontario case of 626381 Ontario Limited et al.
