1993: Good Year for Baseball – Bad Year for Litigation

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What made 1993 a memorable year? Justice Howard addressed that question in the opening seven paragraphs of his decision in Meriano v Benoot, 2016 ONSC 4839. Bill Clinton, Sir John Major, Kim Campbell and Jean Chretien all took office.  Czechoslovakia separate into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Prince changed his name to a symbol. There were no Taylor Swift songs on the radio because, as his Honour archly noted, “the talented….

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Estate Litigation

Determining the CAPITAL DIVIDEND ACCOUNT BALANCE: no longer a shot in the dark?

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The capital dividend account (“CDA”) is a tax free surplus account within a private corporation which gives shareholders designated capital dividends, tax-free. The CDA typically contains the non-taxable portion of the company’s capital gains net of capital losses, capital gains received by other companies, proceeds of life insurance on death and other capital like distributions. The CDA account is often a central feature of tax planning for individuals with private….

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Business Succession Planning, Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, In the News, Investments, Small Business, Succession Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts

Deaccessioning Donations of Art

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Deaccession. It’s a word that brings chills to donors and would-be donors of art to public galleries.   The ingratitude.   The betrayal.  How can they sell my gift, my art?!  To deaccession is, in conventional curatorial thinking, to break trust with donors.  It chases them away. In the spirit of pragmatism, most museums and galleries rule out selling works from their collection. It becomes a matter of policy.   “We never sell….

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Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

SECTION 13 APPLICATIONS

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Section 13 of the Charities Accounting Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.10, as amended (“CAA”), is a useful tool for both estates and charities practitioners alike. The section provides that certain draft orders or judgments that could have been made by the Superior Court of Justice will be deemed to be an order of that court if the Public Guardian and Trustee (“PGT”) and every other person who would have been….

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Estate Planning

Challenging a loved one’s Will? You’re gonna need evidence

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The recent decision in Taylor-Reid v Taylor may seem to be the typical case of an adult child claiming that, ‘dad’s new wife unduly influenced him to cut me out of his Will’, but, on a summary judgment motion, the court found that there was absolutely no evidence to substantiate the plaintiff’s claim. In fact, the evidence showed that, if there was undue influence, it may have been on the….

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Contested wills, Estate Litigation, Undue influence
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