The applicant, a beneficiary of a trust, brought a motion to compel the respondent trustee to produce 65 documents over which the trustee claimed solicitor-client and/or litigation privilege.
The court found that a trustee generally cannot claim solicitor-client privilege against a beneficiary for documents related to trust administration, unless the parties are in an adversarial relationship on a separate and distinct matter.
Litigation privilege was not established as the dominant purpose for creating the documents was not litigation.
The court ordered the production of most documents, with redactions for content unrelated to trust administration where an adversarial relationship existed.
