Paul Courey

This application concerned a dispute over the administration of an estate, specifically the sale of the deceased's home to one of the estate trustees and a $40,000 cheque cashed by another trustee after the deceased's death.

The court found that the trustees breached their fiduciary duties by selling the home below fair market value and that the $40,000 cheque was not a valid gift as it was cashed after the donor's death.

The court ordered the trustee who purchased the home to reimburse the estate for the undervaluation and the trustee who cashed the cheque to return the funds.

The court declined to remove the trustees or nullify the home sale.

This was a costs endorsement following a prior decision on trustee compensation in an estate matter.

The court considered competing costs requests from an objector, a charitable beneficiary, and the solicitor for the estate trustee.

Applying proportionality principles drawn from appellate and estate costs authorities, the court declined to award the full amounts sought and reduced the claims where the work performed did not justify full recovery.

Fixed costs were awarded to the objector, the charitable beneficiary, the estate trustee's solicitor, and another participant.