The following is a round-up of noteworthy articles published this month on estate litigation and related issues:
- Kiran Sanghera at Hull & Hull LLP (Ontario) discusses a recent Ontario case in which the contents of the deceased’s journal were validated as a will: https://hullandhull.com/Knowledge/2024/05/finding-a-notebook-to-be-a-will/. This can be contrasted with the B.C. decision in Hadley Estate (Re) 2017 BCCA 311, where the B.C. Court of Appeal concluded that an entry in a journal did not represent the deliberate and final expression of the deceased’s testamentary intentions.
- Gillian Fournie at de Vries Litigation LLP (Ontario) discusses the differences between renouncing, removing and passing over: https://devrieslitigation.com/renounce-remove-pass-over-difference/
- Venessa DeDominicis of Pushor Mitchell Lawyers (Kelowna) writes about the effect of marriage or divorce on a will: https://pushormitchell.com/2024/04/marriage-divorce-and-your-will/
- Ian M. Hull, also at Hull & Hull LLP, discusses the duty to disclose the transfer of estate assets during estate litigation: https://hullandhull.com/Knowledge/2024/05/is-there-a-duty-to-disclose-the-transfer-of-estate-assets-during-estate-litigation/
- Michael McKiernan authored a post on advisor.ca which discusses a B.C. case in which the court refused to compel an unwilling senior to undergo a capacity assessment: https://www.advisor.ca/tax/estate-planning/court-refuses-to-force-capacity-assessment-on-unwilling-senior/
Happy reading!