Canada Case Law

Clark v. Matossian Estate

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

The trial judge correctly applied the governing legal test for a marriage-like relationship under WESA, properly considered the parties' intentions (using Mr. Matossian's affidavit and corroborative evidence) and the objective indicia (exclusivity, daily routines, long duration, shared vacations, social perception), and her factual findings were open on the evidence; therefore the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and affirmed the finding that the parties were spouses under s.2(1)(b) of WESA.

Source excerpt

• Intestacy
• Definition of spouse
• Marriage-like relationship
• Evidentiary assessment of intention and objective indicia

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Haberla Estate (Re)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court appointed Michael Peters as interim administrator of an intestate estate, finding special circumstances from delay, unpaid taxes, uncollected assets, and related litigation.

• Interim administrator appointment
• Intestacy
• Spousal status determination
• Estate administration
• Partition of property
• Speculation and vacancy tax

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Hill v. Dhanda

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court declared that Tiena Hill was the spouse of Mukhtiar (Mike) Dhanda under WESA after finding a marriage-like relationship from September 2015 until his death.

• Spousal status
• Common-law relationship
• Cohabitation
• Intestacy
• Financial interdependence
• Common-law-relationship

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Aujla v. Dhaliwal

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court refused special costs on a duplicative WESA petition, finding the filing ill-advised but not reprehensible. Ordinary costs of the applications were awarded to the parents.

• Spousal status under wesa
• Intestacy
• Special costs
• Abuse of process
• Duplicative proceedings
• Stay/consolidation

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Hill v. Dhanda

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court dismissed a document-production application because the defendants did not follow Rule 7-1’s required demand process and informal discovery requests were not enough.

• Intestacy
• Common law spouse status
• Document production
• Rule 7-1 sccr
• Pre-trial procedure
• Civil-procedure

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Beirat v. Khiyal

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The appeal is allowed and the Order is set aside because the motion judge erred by applying trust principles without an estate representative asserting the estate's rights, misapplying joint family venture law by treating ownership as equal rather than assessing proportionate contributions, making fundamental credibility findings without cross-examination or oral evidence, and reaching conflicting factual conclusions; the validity of any will and appointment of an estate representative must be determined first and the competing applications consolidated and heard on a full evidentiary record.

Source excerpt

• Resulting trust
• Intestacy
• Estate administration
• Joint family venture
• Credibility assessment
• Oral evidence

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Reid Estate

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court refused to cure a handwritten document as Veronica Reid’s will, finding it authentic but not shown to be her fixed and final testamentary intention.

• Formal validity of wills
• Curative jurisdiction under s.58 wesa
• Testamentary intention
• Intestacy
• Wills-and-estates
• Curative-jurisdiction

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Rajput Estate (Re)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court appointed the deceased’s spouse as administrator of the estate, declared her the spouse under WESA, removed the daughter’s notice of dispute, and barred distribution pending further order.

• Appointment of administrator
• Removal of notice of dispute
• Validity of will
• Intestacy
• Spousal entitlement
• Appointment-of-administrator

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Cooper Estate

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court cured only the revocation clause in an unsigned 2017 draft will, revoked the 1989 will, and held that the estate passes on intestacy.

• Wesa s.58 curative power
• Will revocation
• Intestacy
• Admissibility of hearsay in estate matters
• Rectification and construction
• Wesa-s58-curative-power

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Re Finsant Estate

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court held that the presumption of destruction was not rebutted for a missing 2001 will, so Rosemary Finsant was presumed to have died intestate.

• Presumption of destruction
• Intestacy
• Will revocation
• Validity of non-original will
• Costs
• Presumption-of-destruction

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