A Will Speaks from Death In VanSickle Estate v. VanSickle, 2022 ONCA 643, the Court of Appeal for Ontario considered the presumption that a Will is to be interpreted as if it had been written immediately prior to the death of the testator. Background Dorothy VanSickle died in 2019 at…
Rebecca Studin
Rebecca Studin was called to the Bar in 2009. Before joining de VRIES LITIGATION LLP, Rebecca practised estates and commercial litigation at a full-service international law firm in Toronto. Rebecca’s estates experience includes will interpretation applications, will rectification applications, solicitor’s negligence actions, and other estates and trusts matters.
Rebecca obtained her law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School after earning her honours bachelor of arts degree from Glendon College, York University. Following her call to the Bar, Rebecca was selected as a Fox Scholar and spent a year training as a barrister at the Middle Temple, Inns of Court, in London, UK.
More of Rebecca's blogs can be found at https://devrieslitigation.com/author/rstudin/
In the Estate of Nordby, 2023 ONSC 821, an executor was committed to prison for contempt of court for breaching a court order to pass accounts. Facts: Jennifer Lynn Nordby died on January 23, 2013. Her Will appointed her father, Harold Nordby, as estate trustee and named her two children,…
In J.N. v. C.G., 2023 ONCA 77, the Court of Appeal for Ontario considered whether information from the internet was admissible in Court and reliable as expert evidence. Facts: The appellant father and respondent mother were married for almost seven years before separating. They had three children. The oldest child lived…
This blog was written by Christopher Cook, student-at-law. Medical assistance in dying (“MAiD”) is yet in its infancy in Canada. It was only in 2015 that the Supreme Court of Canada struck down as unconstitutional the Criminal Code’s prohibition on physician-assisted suicide. The following year, the Parliament of Canada amended…
In Meuse v. Taylor, 2022 ONSC 1436, the Court considered the grounds for removing an estate trustee. Facts The events giving rise to the Application involved a purported portrait of William Shakespeare painted during his lifetime. If authenticated by an interested buyer, the portrait had a potential value of USD…
This blog was written by Christopher Cook, student-at-law The law recognizes three ways in which a stranger to the trust (i.e., someone who is not an appointed trustee) may be liable for breach of trust. First, one may be liable as a “trustee de son tort.” This is the case…
The recent decision of Marrone (Re) by the Capital Markets Tribunal (“CMT”), an independent division of the Ontario Securities Commission, provides an interesting example of the intersection between the professional conduct rules governing mutual fund dealers and estates law as it relates to conflicts of interest. The facts in Marrone…
In Krivokapic v. Josephe Boss, the Quebec Court of Appeal affirmed the invalidity of a capable testator’s Will that was procured through undue influence. Facts The testator, Valentin Boss, was an accomplished professor and author during his career. The testator was married for 22 years, and had one daughter, Sylvia…
In a previous post, I blogged about the case of McGrath v. Joy, where the Court held that a handwritten suicide note was invalid as the deceased lacked testamentary capacity when he wrote it due to drug and alcohol consumption. The application judge’s decision was recently overturned by Court of…
In a Will challenge proceeding, the Court in Lugarich v. Fabris, 2021 ONSC 7294, considered the interlocutory issue of whether to authorize the estate trustee appointed pursuant to the challenged Will to complete the sale of a residential property, or whether an estate trustee during litigation should be appointed to…