Total 24 Posts
It can be frustrating when, at the end of lengthy, hard fought litigation with an even longer record a court hands down a short decision less than a page long. The parties will scrutinize the decision, reading each line of the judge’s reasons over and over again. After repeating this exercise a few times they may still come away with the question – but why?? From a policy perspective, reasons….
Some stuff happened, and now people are fighting about what exactly happened. To find out what happened, evidence is needed. In estate litigation, there are special principles and rules of evidence along with the usual ones to be considered. The recent case of Koutsovasilis v. Carreira, provides a useful summary of some of these. The Facts The case involved a dispute over ownership of a property between a woman by….
A long, long time ago… Continue Reading »
Credibility, Estate Litigation
Kira Domratchev, Associate Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP I recently came across an interesting decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice where the Court used the doctrine of a resulting trust to reach an outcome on a series of events that left a creditor unable to collect an outstanding costs award. LPIC v Fiore et al, 2021 ONSC 7860 was a decision in an action by a plaintiff indemnity company….
PROCEED CAREFULLY – FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES Continue Reading »
Courts, Credibility, Real Estate, Trusts
In my last blog, I described the Court’s expectation for confirming a finding of incapacity: namely, that compelling evidence is required to override the presumption of capacity. Such evidence may include corroborative information. However, the Court has warned assessors to be alive to the presence of improper motives of informants who seek to have another found to be without mental capacity.[i] The Consent and Capacity Board (the “Board”) in Ontario….
Capacity Evaluation – the Role of Corroborative Information at CCB Hearings Continue Reading »
Appeals, Capacity Law, Credibility, Family Conflict, Guardianship, HealthcareA recently released decision, Giann v Giannopoulos, 2023 ONSC 5412, provides clarity on a question that frequently arises in estate litigation: what information is a party entitled to from the deceased’s personal records and documents? This case, heard by Justice Myers of the estate list in mid-September this year was a motion by the Applicants for orders providing them access to the legal, medical and financial records of their deceased….
Production motions: the bar is higher than you think Continue Reading »
Contested wills, Credibility, Estate LitigationToday’s Blog Post was written by Gabrielle Arbic-Lloyd, Student-at-Law at Fasken LLP In February, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered one spouse to pay the other more than one million dollars in costs in addition to spousal and child support. So what motivated the Court to order this spouse to pay so much in costs? The answer lies in lack of financial disclosure and bad behaviour. Financial disclosure is one….
Lack of Financial Disclosure Comes at a Significant Financial Cost Continue Reading »
Costs, Courts, Credibility, Family Conflict, Separation, Spouse