The applicants, five adult children of the deceased, brought an application against the deceased's spouse, the respondent, claiming that approximately $7,000,000 in assets held either in the respondent's name or jointly were held on a resulting trust for the deceased's estate.
The court found that the deceased had a history of placing assets in others' names to avoid creditors.
The respondent failed to comply with court orders to produce financial records to prove she contributed to the assets, leading the court to draw adverse inferences against her.
The court concluded that the deceased funded the assets and did not intend to gift them to the respondent, declaring all disputed assets to be held on a resulting trust for the estate.