In McNamee v. McNamee, the Court of Appeal reviewed the essential ingredients of a legally valid gift. The issue on appeal was whether 500 common shares in the family business, which had been transferred to Mr. McNamee Jr. constituted a gift for the purposes of s. 4(2) of the Family Law Act.
Last week, the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment in Smith v. Rotstein. The decision appealed from was a summary judgment under old Rule 20 dismissing Ms. Rotstein’s will challenge.
Yesterday, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in Robinson Estate. The decision acknowledged the trend in Canadian jurisprudence towards admitting extrinsic evidence of the testator’s circumstances and those surrounding the making of the will. However, the Court found that it was not open to the application judge to determine Blanca’s intention based on evidence from third parties about her testamentary intentions.
How much compensation should be awarded to an estate trustee who has breached her duty of honesty and utmost good faith, was prepared to simply cut a cheque to pay out a claim against the estate without any investigation into its merits, and was prepared to use the threat of destroying the testator’s beloved pets as a means to try to extract benefits for her friends and herself?
