All About Estates

Tag: costs

Total 7 Posts

Inheritance and Tax

There is renewed discussion on whether Canada will become another jurisdiction where specific gift or estate taxes will be imposed on inheritances. There is speculation that the discussion will lead to something concrete as early as next week’s Federal Budget. In the meantime, there are situations where inheritances can come…

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Trustees Ordered to Pay Costs Personally

In a recent court decision, the court declined to order costs payable from a modest estate and instead ordered the two parties (both trustees) to pay costs personally. A testamentary trustee, Mr. Cardinal, brought an application to compel estate trustee, Mrs. Perreault, to pass her accounts in her capacity as…

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Winner Doesn’t Take All: Estate Trustee Cannot Indemnify for Costs

An estate trustee was successful in litigation in upholding the will. However, due to her conduct before and during the litigation the court nevertheless ordered that she personally bear half of her costs in Bayford v. Boese, 2019 ONSC 6919. The estate trustee (a friend of the deceased) sought to…

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Power of Attorney Disputes: Effective Capacity Assessments

I was honoured to moderate a panel today at the Advocates’ Society’s CPD today “Capable or Not? How to Effectively Litigate and Mediate a Power of Attorney Dispute” (which will be available for purchase online in a couple of months as a webcast archive at TAS’ website). Justices McEwen and…

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An Award of Full Indemnity Costs is Not a Fantasy

A recent cost decision awards full indemnity costs on a leave motion. The court found that if estate trustees are expected to bear their own litigation costs, they would refuse to be appointed and would also be reluctant to bring proceedings to advance the due administration of the estate.

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Applying Proportionality to an Award of Costs in Estate Litigation

The fine art of proportionality applied or hindsight run amuck? You decide.

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Choose your Estate Battles Carefully

Not a happy day for respondent beneficiaries where a rectification application they opposed was granted and the court then ordered that they pay the costs of the applicant personally. Estate litigation is no cake walk.

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