What I’m Reading: Interesting Estate Litigation Articles for May 2022:

The following is a round-up of noteworthy articles published this month on estate litigation and related issues:

  1. Ashley Naipaul at Hull & Hull LLP (in Ontario) discusses an Alberta case which considered whether the court ought to look at the reasons behind a person’s decision to revoke their power of attorney as part of the determination of whether that person had capacity to make the revocation: https://hullandhull.com/Knowledge/2022/05/questioning-the-decision-to-revoke-or-grant-a-poa-where-capacity-and-autonomy-intersect/
  2. Albert Oosterhoff at WEL Partners (Toronto) discusses the doctrine of ademption – what happens if a will-maker makes a specific gift in their will, but then the property no longer exists or is no longer owned by the will-maker at the date of death: https://welpartners.com/blog/2022/05/ademption-by-conversion-best-v-hendry/
  3. Kantor LLP (Calgary) posts about a recent Alberta case in which an executor was removed because they were taking too long to administer the estate: https://www.kantorllp.ca/blog/failure-to-act-results-in-personal-representative-removal/
  4. Candace Cho (Onyx Law Group) writes about the issue of whether a plaintiff was a “spouse” who was entitled to claim under an intestacy: https://onyxlaw.ca/bc-inheritance-turns-on-common-law-relationship-status/
  5. Albert Oosterhoff at WEL Partners (Toronto) considers when the duty to keep accounts begins for someone who holds a power of attorney: https://welpartners.com/blog/2022/05/when-does-an-attorneys-duty-to-keep-accounts-begin/
  6. The B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture has sued to confiscate $120,000 (a package of $50, $20 and $10 bills) from the estate of a man found dead of an overdose, claiming that the deceased was a drug trafficker, and the monies were proceeds of crime:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/civil-forfeiture-drug-trafficking-sametz-1.6468682

Happy reading!