Estate Planning

Dual Co-habitation and Claims for Support

By Hull and Hull LLP

Can a deceased person, immediately before his or her death, be found to have been in a common law spousal relationship with two persons, each of whom could assert a claim for support as a dependant?  This was the interesting question recently considered on a motion for interim support under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act ("SLRA").

In Blair v. Cooke, the Applicant commenced an Application against the Estate seeking dependant support, and subsequently brought a motion seeking interim support from the estate.   In support of her application, the Applicant filed an extensive affidavit describing the history of her relationship with the Deceased and argued that she is a dependant spouse of the Deceased, thus, entitled to support under the provisions of the SLRA.  The court was also provided with numerous affidavits of friends and acquaintances confirming the Applicant's 11-year relationship with the Deceased.

The Respondent is the estate trustee of the estate for the Deceased, and also argues that she is the Deceased's common law spouse.  It is important to clarify that the Respondent does not make a claim for dependant support, but rather opposes the Applicant's application.  In doing so, the Respondent filed her own affidavit and the affidavit of friends and acquaintances, which would corroborate that she was the Deceased's common law spouse.  The Respondent argued the court should not make any finding of entitlement to support for the Applicant, because doing so would preclude her from claiming support (if she decided to make a claim at a later date) or claiming that she was in fact the 'spouse' of the deceased. 

In considering whether or not a person could have two spouses for the purpose of making a dependant support claim, the court considered section 57 of the SLRA, more particularly the following definitions:

1.      'Dependent' can be a  'spouse of the deceased...to whom the deceased was providing support or was under a legal obligation to provide support immediately before his or her death...'. 

2.      'Spousal' is further defined under the SLRA as 'either of two persons who...are not married to each other and have co-habited...continuously for a period of not less than three years'; and

3.       'Co-habit' is defined to mean living together 'in a conjugal relationship'.

The 'twist' that I found interesting in this case, was that the court found that there was enough evidence to conclude that the deceased may have co-habited with two different women, in different homes.  The court stated that they did not have to determine that one party was a spouse and the other was not for purposes of awarding interim support; in fact both women could qualify.  The Applicant was awarded interim support.

Rick Bickhram

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on February 07, 2011 (boomark / email).