Articles 2020

On May 5, 2021, the Ontario Divisional Court released its decision in Masters v Claremont Development Corporation, which discusses the Clergy principle, as well as the jurisdiction of the Divisional Court to review decisions of the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (“LPAT”).

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of June 21, 2021.

Two recent Superior Court judges depart from the court's ruling in Calmusky that a beneficiary designation is subject to the presumption of resulting trust.

Julie Weller and Tristan Hunter provide insightful analysis on a recent WSIAT decision involving chromatic mental stress entitlement and its potential implications for employers.

What happens when a worker receives a COVID-19 vaccine as a mandatory requirement of their employment and suffers a series and unexpected reaction? Cassandra Ma summarizes WSIB's new guidelines on the adjudication of COVID-19-related benefits.

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) is consulting on four new initiatives, including new guidelines and measures aimed at ensuring compliance with key environmental laws relevant to the development industry. These laws and initiatives are applicable to the land use planning process, affecting municipal decision-making, development guidelines and penalties for non-compliance. The four initiatives are summarized, and their impact analyzed, in this article.

An overview of the amendments of Bill 229 to the Conservation Authorities Act.

The "deceptively simple" question of whether a spouse had capacity to marry is one that lies at the intersection of family, estates and elder law. This case comment reconsiders the important decision of Tanti v. Tanti, on capacity to marry, in light of the reforms to the SLRA by the Accelerating Access to Justice Act. As the author explains, even after the SLRA amendments come into force on January 1, 2022, marriage has the potential to dramatically change the distribution of a spouse's estate.

Gain insight into issues facing your fellow estates & trusts practitioners through this summary of the May meeting of the BBL group. Topics included the applicability of land transfer tax to various forms of transfers from an estate to a beneficiary, the changes effected by the Accelerating Access to Justice Act, 2021, and how to deal with various unusual testator requests, including for the destruction of estate property.

At the March meeting of the Estates List Users Committee, stakeholders discussed wait times for court dates, various measures the court has implemented to reserve time for contested matters, and how the Bar can assist in reducing the scheduling backlog over the upcoming months. The Minutes also provide resources for counsel working with CaseLines, which is now being used for all contested matters on the Estates List.