Estate Planning

Claims By or Against Estates

By Hull & Hull LLP

Lawsuits by and against estates often lead to arguments that there is no evidence to support the allegations. It seems to me this is part and parcel of the inherent difficulty in such lawsuits caused by the fact that one of if not the most important witnesses – the deceased - is unavailable.

To redress this unfairness, Section 13 of the Evidence Act is intended to protect estates from claims, and others from claims of estates, but requiring some corroborative evidence of a claim for it so succeed:

13.  In an action by or against the heirs, next of kin, executors, administrators or assigns of a deceased person, an opposite or interested party shall not obtain a verdict, judgment or decision on his or her own evidence in respect of any matter occurring before the death of the deceased person, unless such evidence is corroborated by some other material evidence.

The question, then, becomes what standard corroborative evidence must reach to meet the requirements of section 13. Tomorrow I’ll briefly touch on a case which deals with that point.

Thanks for reading.

Sean Graham

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on June 16, 2008 (boomark / email).