Estate Litigation

Total 413 Posts

It’s All About The Benjamin Orders

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Did William die? If so, when? These were the central issues addressed in Steele v. Smith, 2018 ONSC 4601. There, the Court had to consider whether the estate trustee of William’s sister’s estate should receive a “Benjamin Order”, permitting the estate trustee to distribute the residue of her estate as if William had predeceased her. The testator (William’s sister) was born in Northern Ireland on December 23, 1922 and later immigrated….

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Wills

My Summer Vacation

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One of my favorite routines on my annual summer vacation is to read the local news. Regular readers of this Blog may not be surprised that the story which caught my eye this summer was about an Estate.   Richard M. Grant, a life-long farmer, known as the “The Corn King” and “The Bean Baron of Maine”, passed away in February 2017. According to the Portland Press Herald (“the Herald”), Grant’s….

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Contested wills, Estate Litigation, Family Conflict, In the News, Uncategorized

Death, Delay, and Dismissal

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There are numerous technical traps a lawsuit can fall into which will need to be corrected before the matter moves forward. Generally speaking, the current norms of practice are for the parties to sort out any technical deficiencies between themselves so court time can be devoted to arguing the substantive issues in dispute. The Rules of Civil Procedure support this approach (see, for example, Rule 2 of the Rules of….

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Costs, Estate Litigation, Real Estate

Support, Shoes and Social Media

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How much interim dependant support is too much? When can interim legal fees be ordered? And can young people be stopped from posting on Instagram? Justice Pattillo had to consider these question in Zavet v. Herzog, 2018 ONSC 3398. The deceased, a wealthy real estate developer behind many of Toronto’s swankiest condos, was survived by his wife of almost 50 years (he had been separated from her since 1995), two….

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Dependant Support, Estate Litigation

Limitation Periods – Not Available to Everyone

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One of the first steps following the death of a loved one is to go through their paperwork. You never know what you will find – handwritten wills, love letters, bank statements, or written agreements confirming that the deceased is owed money. If the estate is owed funds, it is up to the estate trustee to collect. That may mean jumping into ongoing litigation to protect the estate’s interest in….

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Estate Litigation, Small Business

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and Undue Influence

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In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the ban on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was unconstitutional (for a summary of the decision, click here). However, MAiD is not available to all persons; to qualify, a person requesting MAiD must have a grievous and irremediable medical condition including an illness, disease or disability. In its seminal decision, Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 5, the Supreme Court of….

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Capacity Law, Disability, Elder Care, Elder Law, Geriatric Care Management, In the News, Testamentary Capacity, Undue influence
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