A contingent beneficial interest in a discretionary family trust does not constitute an interest in a matrimonial home.
The appellant husband appealed a trial decision finding that the home he and his wife lived in during their marriage was not a matrimonial home under the Family Law Act.
The home was owned by a family trust settled by the wife's mother, in which the wife had a contingent beneficial interest and acted as a co-trustee.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, holding that the wife's contingent beneficial interest in the trust as a whole did not give her a specific property interest in the home itself.
Furthermore, her role as a trustee could not be conflated with her beneficial interest to create a property interest under section 18(1) of the Act.
Spencer v. Riesberry, 2012 ONCA 418
