Estate trustees be warned: you may be held personally liable for failure to pay the estate’s taxes and/or the tax arrears of the deceased. When estate trustees are advised of this fact by their lawyers, pains are taken to soften the blow. CRA tends to be more blunt. Following the…
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…
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…
The “rule of law” is a defining feature of western democracies. Briefly described, it is the insistence that all government action be based in law, and is contrasted with acts of tyranny, dictatorship, and arbitrary exercises of power. The central role that the rule of law plays in Canadian society…
Interesting things happen when family law and estates collide. Battles over domestic contracts and houses lead to discussions of past mistakes, life experience, and occupation rent. Such was the case in Psarros Estate v Cook. As with many estates litigation cases, the Court was asked to determine a broad range…
Capable adults are free to enter into a contract with one another. Once entered into, the contract is binding on the parties (exceptions apply) and they may ask the court for assistance enforcing the terms of the contract. Different rules apply to contracts entered into by minors (in Ontario, the…
Nobody is perfect – sometimes you lose your keys. Other times you lose your will. The problem is, by the time your estate trustee realizes the will is gone, you won’t be around to help look for it. The inability to find a testator’s will does not automatically result in…
As a law student, my trust law professor brought in a “dead hand” to help us remember the rule against perpetuities. The prop was effective: I have not forgotten that the rule stops trust property from being governed indefinitely from “beyond the grave.” While principles of trust law helpfully prevent…
The 2014 Supreme Court decision, Hryniak v Mauldin, directly addressed the need to increase access to justice. In that case, the Supreme Court clarified and broadened a court’s fact-finding powers on summary judgment motions with the goal of providing litigants a faster procedure in appropriate cases. In the same spirit,…
You may be forgiven for thinking that the expression “clear as mud” was created specifically to describe limitation periods. The policy rationale behind limitation periods is to create certainty and predictability by establishing a firm deadline by which a claim must be brought or else the claim is lost forever….
