The Sibling Fight
A blog by Charles B. Ticker on various estate stories
Another Farm Case of Proprietary Estoppel
In the past I have blogged about the doctrine of proprietary estoppel in the context of an estate dispute over ownership of a farm (See Breakfast with Gus). The Ontario Court of Appeal in Schwark Estate v. Cutting 2010 ONCA 61 summarized the law of...
Appointing all your children as executors can be a mistake
When I was drafting Wills my clients would quite often have difficulty in deciding whom they should appoint to be their executor. While they usually would appoint their spouse, when it came to appointing other alternate executors, they typically...
Sibling spat results in removal of attorney
In the past, I have blogged and spoken about the duties of an attorney (substitute decision maker) acting under a power of attorney. I am consulted on a regular basis by family members of incapable persons who have concerns or complaints concerning...
Sibling estate dispute highlights pitfalls of joint tenancy
A recent decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Semenoff Estate v. Bridgeman, highlights the problems that can result when joint tenancy is used as an estate planning tool , non-lawyers draft their own legal documents and ask their...
Duties of attorney for property difficult to find in Ontario statute
In Ontario, the duties of an attorney for property acting under a power of attorney (“POA”) are set out in the Substitute Decisions Act (“SDA”). An attorney who is prepared to do some research or seek legal advice will of course be referred to the...
Preventing financial abuse under powers of attorney
This past week I attended the Canadian Bar Association National Elder Law Conference. The conference was an opportunity to meet colleagues from across Canada and to exchange ideas and discuss developments in the growing area of elder law. One of...
Settlement of soul singer’s estate dispute set aside
I have written on this blog of several estate disputes involving celebrities. A recent case is yet another example of controversy that often results after a celebrity’s passing. James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul” died in Atlanta, Georgia on...
Sibling spat over sugar leads to estate fight
Sibling spats involving family and parents are not new. However, with the advent of email communications, those disputes, fuelled by the exchange of nasty e-mails, tend to grow totally out of proportion. Sometimes the ensuing litigation is so...