{"id":6550,"date":"2019-02-26T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.niagaralaw.ca\/?p=6550"},"modified":"2023-04-11T15:40:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T15:40:39","slug":"dual-wills-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/dual-wills-update\/","title":{"rendered":"An Update on Dual Wills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a November 2018 blog post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niagaralaw.ca\/lawyers\/robert-di-lallo\/\">Robert DiLallo<\/a> of Daniel &amp; Partners LLP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niagaralaw.ca\/dual-wills\/\">presented<\/a> two recent contrasting Ontario Superior Court decisions regarding the validity of dual wills in the context of an Application for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will (also known as an application for probate).<\/p>\n<p>These cases included <em>Milne Estate (Re)<\/em>, [2018] O.J. No 4656 and <em>Panda Estate (Re)<\/em>, [2018] O.J. No. 6057.\u00a0 In the <em>Panda Estate (Re)<\/em> decision, the Court declined to follow the ruling in <em>Milne Estate (Re)<\/em>.\u00a0 The Court ruled that a Will is not a trust, deciding not to follow the ruling in <em>Milne Estate (Re)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the November statement, our firm mentioned that the <em>Milne Estate (Re) <\/em>decision had been appealed.\u00a0 We are pleased to report that the Divisional Court has allowed the appeal and set aside the orders of the Application Judge in the <em>Milne Estate (Re)<\/em> decision.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/on\/onscdc\/doc\/2019\/2019onsc579\/2019onsc579.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appeal decision<\/a> examined three issues brought forth by the appellants:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did the Application Judge err in holding that a will is a trust?<\/li>\n<li>Did the Application Judge err in holding that the \u201cThree Certainties\u201d of a trust, determined the validity of a will?<\/li>\n<li>Did the Application Judge exceed the Court\u2019s inquisitorial jurisdiction?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Divisional Court found that primarily, a will is not a trust.\u00a0 The Application Judge sided with The Honourable <em>Mr<\/em>. <em>Justice<\/em> Penny of the <em>Panda Estate (Re) <\/em>decision, finding that the judge in <em>Milne Estate (Re) <\/em>cited no authority in support of the statement that a will is a trust, and that this claim was an error of law.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the Divisional Court\u2019s decision that a will is not a trust proved the claim that the \u201cThree Certainties\u201d of a trust determining the validity of a will is false.\u00a0 In addition, the appeal found that even if this principle were true, that the subject-matter of the Primary Wills is certain.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the Divisional Court supported The Honourable <em>Mr<\/em>. <em>Justice<\/em> Penny in stating that discretionary decision-making conferred on estate trustees are matters of construction and not necessary to the grant of probate, although the overstepping of inquisitorial jurisdiction was not necessary in coming to a final decision on the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The team at Daniel &amp; Partners LLP are well equipped to assist you with your legal issues. Contact our office today.<\/p>\n<p>Blog post written by Scott Easterbrook, Brock University intern.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.niagaralaw.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Wills-Estates-Law.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6552\" src=\"https:\/\/www.niagaralaw.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Wills-Estates-Law.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"409\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a November 2018 blog post, Robert DiLallo of Daniel &amp; Partners LLP presented two recent contrasting Ontario Superior Court decisions regarding the validity of dual wills in the context of an Application for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will (also known as an application for probate). These cases included Milne [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[74,42,71,72,78],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8042,"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6550\/revisions\/8042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niagaralaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}