In Middleton Estate v. Middleton, 2020 ONCA 552 (CanLII), the Court of Appeal for Ontario considered the appeal from a trial judge’s decision concluding that the first of two promissory notes reflected the deceased’s intention that a loan made to her daughter was repayable on the deceased’s death. Facts: Eva…
Category: Credibility
Total 22 Posts
Calmusky v. Calmusky, 2020 ONSC 1506, is a 2020 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that is ruffling some feathers among banks, financial advisors and estate planning lawyers in Ontario. In this case, the court applied the principles surrounding the presumption of resulting trust, established by the Supreme Court…
A lot has been written about how should choose an executor, and some of it in this blog place. A couple of years ago, fellow boggler Emily Hubling wrote eloquently about the risk and rewards of appointing a professional advisor as executor. I would like to revisit some of the…
Counsel faced with responding to frivolous objections to an application for a certificate of appointment of estate trustee may wish to consider rule 25.11 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 25.11 allows the court to strike out (all or part of) a pleading, without leave to amend, on the…
Estate litigation is full of high emotions and recriminations, usually stemming from decades of family history. As a result, it is not unusual for a client to question their family member’s reason for commencing litigation against them: jealousy and revenge for some long ago slight are usual suspects. However, as…
The recent case of Novak v. McDougall, (2019 SKQB 261), confirms that when you have accepted an appointment to be trustee, you may not be able to have yourself removed from that appointment without a suitable replacement. The applicant in this case, a beneficiary of a “Henson” trust (basically defined…
In Bayford v. Boese 2019 ONSC 5663 the deceased Mr. Boese was the sole owner of a farm in Eastern Ontario he inherited from his parents. He never married and had no children. For two decades prior to his death, Mr. Boese was assisted in the operation of the farm…
Bayford v. Boese is an interesting case which serves as a reminder of the statutory requirements for due execution of a will. It also provides a thorough analysis of how judges dissect a witness’ evidence and generally determine who to ultimately believe at trial. Bruce Boese (the “Deceased”) was the…
So I was meeting with the beneficiaries of an estate to finalize some of the tax filings to be made. The tax filings reflected a series of transactions completed to eliminate double taxation on the disposition of some of the estate’s assets. What was causing the possibility of double taxation…
When asking a friend for a financial favour, people often fail to document their actions and decisions as thoroughly as they should – the trust people have in their friends frequently translates into a belief that they do not need to pay attention. Regardless of whether the trust was deserved,…