Jane Staub

The applicants, parents and trustees of a trust established for their son following a serious brain injury, applied to pass their accounts.

The trust received $418,675.25 over 17 years, but the trustees administered it entirely in cash and lacked receipts for most disbursements.

The court found that the trustees failed to keep proper records and included fictitious loans and unpaid services in the accounts.

While some expenses were allowed, the trustees failed to account for $165,531.14.

After deducting $15,000 for trustee compensation, the court ordered the trustees to repay $150,531.14 to the trust.

The appellant, a catastrophically brain-injured motor vehicle accident victim, appealed the dismissal of claims for caregiver benefits and declaratory relief under the pre-1994 Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, while the insurer cross-appealed on accident-benefits priority against another insurer.

The majority held that s. 7(1)(a) required an incurred reasonable cost for a professional caregiver and did not compensate unpaid care provided by family members; it also refused declaratory relief concerning a future care plan as premature and insufficiently concrete.

On the cross-appeal, the court held that a dishonest broker who issued fraudulent pink slips had neither actual nor apparent authority to bind the proposed insurer, which had made no representation capable of grounding ostensible authority.

A partial dissent would have interpreted the Schedule purposively to permit compensation for family-provided care and would have granted declaratory relief.