Angela Casey

Total 9 Posts

Angela is a partner at de VRIES LITIGATION LLP. Angela has extensive experience with capacity litigation, power of attorney disputes, dependant support claims, will challenges, and will interpretation proceedings. She routinely acts as agent lawyer for the Children’s Lawyer in contentious litigation. She also has extensive experience litigating commercial and shareholder disputes, as well as fraud actions. She has appeared before the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Divisional Court, and several administrative tribunals.

Deceased’s Will So Hateful it is Suspicious

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When WW finally received a copy of her father’s will, after more than a year of chasing her father’s second wife to produce it, she read these words: I have equally considered my two children and leave them absolutely nothing. [WW] is entirely without morality and who ‘did not know’ if she could tell the truth in a Court. She is less a person than her mother. G-d help anyone….

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Contested wills, Estate Litigation, Family Conflict, Testamentary Capacity, Undue influence, Wills

Costly Cottage Dispute – $403,174.85 in Legal Costs Sought in Dispute Over $300,000 Cottage

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At long last, cottage season is upon us. As I gaze longingly out my window at the construction of what looks like an awesome rooftop patio in the making, I thought it would be fitting to write about a cottage dispute.[1] A really, really expensive cottage dispute. The background was as follows. The mother, Grace, made a will in 2010 leaving her condo to her daughter Barbara and her cottage….

Costly Cottage Dispute – $403,174.85 in Legal Costs Sought in Dispute Over $300,000 Cottage Continue Reading »

Capacity Law, Costs, Cottage, Estate Litigation, Family Conflict, Property, Real Estate, Testamentary Capacity, Wills

Which Comes First: Preferential Share or Mortgages?

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The Succession Law Reform Act (“SLRA”) provides that if a married person dies intestate, the first $200,000 (called the “preferential share”) of the deceased’s net estate goes to the married spouse[i]. Any funds remaining after the payment of the preferential share is shared among the spouse and children. In Re Estate of Richard Lewis Crane (“Crane”), the deceased died intestate. He left a second wife and two sons from a previous marriage.  The….

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Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Real Estate, Spouse, Succession Planning

Pre-Death POA Disputes

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I have no statistics on this, but anecdotally, I have had many conversations lately with fellow estate litigators who have noticed the same recent trend in their practices.  That rather unseemly development is this:  expectant beneficiaries no longer wait until a person is dead to start fighting over inheritance money.  In more and more cases, the fights begin while the testator is still alive. A case decided earlier this month,….

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Elder Law, Estate Litigation, Family Conflict, Guardianship, Power of Attorney, Powers Of Attorney and Guardianship Disputes, Trustee Disputes

POA versus Executor Compensation

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On Tuesday, September 29, I spoke at an OBA program entitled “The Family Business: Administration and Litigation of Trusts and Estates Holding Business Assets.” At the end of the program, there was an interesting discussion about the distinction between compensation for estate trustees and compensation for POAs or guardians of property appointed pursuant to the Substitute Decisions Act (“SDA”). A regulation to the SDA sets out the prescribed rates of….

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Attorney Compensation, Compensation, Executors, Passing Of Trustees’ and Executors’ Accounts, POA Compensation, Power of Attorney, Trustee, Trustee Compensation

Who Pays the Legal Costs of a Dependant’s Relief Claim?

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My colleague, Diane Vieira, recently blogged about the Divisional Court’s decision in Quinn v. Carrigan.  While she highlighted what the case had to say about the proper approach to determining dependant’s support, the case is also instructive on who should bear the costs of a dependant support application. Prior to McDougald Estate v. Gooderham and Salter v. Salter Estate (in which Justice Brown notoriously warned estate litigants that an estate….

Who Pays the Legal Costs of a Dependant’s Relief Claim? Continue Reading »

Estate Planning, Home-Right, International
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