Lisa Filgiano

Following a complex estates trial involving claims and counterclaims among family members, the court determined the costs of the proceedings.

Finding no clear winner or loser, the court applied the modern approach to estates costs and ordered that the partial indemnity costs of the respondent sons and the estate of a deceased son be paid out of the father's estate, due to the public policy considerations engaged by the father's pre-death actions.

The court also ordered the estate to pay the reasonable preparation and attendance costs of non-party professional witnesses.

The applicant sought full indemnity costs of $244,556.99 for an application regarding ownership interests in a property, citing the respondent's litigation tactics and delayed production of documents.

The respondent argued for no costs due to divided success, as the applicant did not succeed in claiming a 100% interest or an order for sale.

The court awarded the applicant substantial indemnity costs, reduced by 50% to reflect partial success, fixing the costs at $110,050.65.

The applicant's estate sought costs for a successful dependent's support motion.

The court awarded substantial indemnity costs of $84,456.11 against the respondent estate trustee and the estate jointly and severally, citing the respondent's vituperative opposition and the applicant's unaccepted offer to settle.

A supporting respondent's request for costs was dismissed as there was no lis between him and the opposing respondent.

The applicant estate trustee sought a declaration of the deceased's 50% interest in a condominium property.

The property was originally held in joint tenancy by the deceased and his mother.

The court found that the joint tenancy was severed prior to the deceased's death through the mother's unilateral instructions to her lawyer to sever the tenancy and the deceased's use of his interest as security for a support order.

The court declared the mother's subsequent survivorship application void and ordered the title rectified to reflect a tenancy in common, but declined to order partition and sale while the mother still resided in the property.

Following a motion for interim support where the applicant was ordered to pay costs in the cause, the respondent Estate Trustee sought to vary the costs order based on a previously undisclosed offer to settle.

The court found the offer was more favourable to the applicant than the motion's outcome.

The court amended the costs order, directing that the $40,000 in partial indemnity costs be payable by the applicant in any event of the cause at the conclusion of the application.

The applicant, the common-law spouse of the deceased, brought a motion for interim support under the Succession Law Reform Act pending the final determination of her dependant's support application.

The deceased was a wealthy real estate developer who left his entire estate to his estranged wife and daughters.

The court rejected the applicant's budget of over $93,000 per month as unsubstantiated and overstated, instead awarding $30,000 per month in interim support.

The court dismissed the applicant's requests for interim legal fees, HST indemnification, and production of the deceased's estate planning files.

The court also granted the estate's cross-motion in part, imposing restrictions on the applicant's use of the estate-owned condominium, including a 15-person guest limit and a ban on posting interior photos on social media.

In an estates application concerning capacity and management of property, a respondent brought a motion to prevent the use of a transcript from an examination conducted in unrelated prior litigation.

The applicant sought to rely on the transcript to demonstrate incapacity.

The court held that the transcript was subject to the deemed undertaking rule under Rule 30.1.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and could not be used in collateral proceedings without leave.

The court found that the interests of justice did not outweigh the privacy and litigation integrity concerns underlying the rule.

The transcript was ordered to remain sealed and excluded from the application record.