Rebecca Studin

In Meuse v. Taylor, 2022 ONSC 1436, the Court considered the grounds for removing an estate trustee. Facts The events giving rise to the Application involved a purported portrait of William Shakespeare painted during his lifetime. If authenticated by an interested buyer, the portrait had a potential value of USD $50,000,000; if simply a 400-year of painting, the value would be far less. The portrait was the primary asset of….

This blog was written by Christopher Cook, student-at-law The law recognizes three ways in which a stranger to the trust (i.e., someone who is not an appointed trustee) may be liable for breach of trust. First, one may be liable as a “trustee de son tort.” This is the case when one takes on the responsibilities of a trustee, though unappointed, and commits a breach of trust while so acting…..

The recent decision of Marrone (Re) by the Capital Markets Tribunal (“CMT”), an independent division of the Ontario Securities Commission, provides an interesting example of the intersection between the professional conduct rules governing mutual fund dealers and estates law as it relates to conflicts of interest. The facts in Marrone (Re) involved a financial advisor at IPC Investment Corporation (“IPC”) who was responsible for managing around $6 million in mutual….

In Krivokapic v. Josephe Boss, the Quebec Court of Appeal affirmed the invalidity of a capable testator’s Will that was procured through undue influence. Facts The testator, Valentin Boss, was an accomplished professor and author during his career. The testator was married for 22 years, and had one daughter, Sylvia Katerine Josephe Boss (“Sylvia”). The testator was divorced in 1989. The testator began a relationship with Milica Krivokapic (“Milica”) in 1989,….

In a previous post, I blogged about the case of McGrath v. Joy, where the Court held that a handwritten suicide note was invalid as the deceased lacked testamentary capacity when he wrote it due to drug and alcohol consumption. The application judge’s decision was recently overturned by Court of Appeal for Ontario. The Facts: Joseph Philip Joy (the “deceased”) committed suicide sometime in the early morning of July 13,….

In a Will challenge proceeding, the Court in Lugarich v. Fabris, 2021 ONSC 7294, considered the interlocutory issue of whether to authorize the estate trustee appointed pursuant to the challenged Will to complete the sale of a residential property, or whether an estate trustee during litigation should be appointed to close the transaction. The Facts:  The Deceased died on December 6, 2019, leaving a Last Will and Testament dated November….