COURT FILE NO.: 2023-26864
DATE: 2023/07/29
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE - ONTARIO
RE: IN THE ESTATE OF TROY DEVERON HAGGITT, Deceased
BEFORE: Justice I.F. Leach
COUNSEL: Stewart G. Thomson, for the applicant
HEARD: In writing.
ENDORSEMENT
[1] Before me is an application by Mikalene Thompson, mother of the deceased, Troy Deveron Haggitt, for a certificate appointing her as estate trustee of an estate with assets totalling $112,450.02, (consisting solely of a pension worth $107,450.02 and personal effects worth $5,000.00), in respect of which the deceased apparently left no will.
[2] In her application material, (and submitted draft order in particular), Mr Haggitt’s mother also has requested an order dispensing with “the necessity (sic) for the filing of an Administration Bond” by the applicant.
[3] Having reviewed the application material, I am satisfied that the applicable requirements of Rule 74.1 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and the Estates Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.E.21, have been met, and the certificate should issue. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing:
a. the deceased was unmarried and had no surviving issue;
b. the deceased was survived by his mother but apparently not by his father; and
c. the applicant, as the deceased’s sole surviving parent, is the sole and absolute beneficiary of Mr Haggitt’s estate pursuant to s.47(3) of the Succession Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.26.
[4] However, in my view, the request for an order formally dispensing with a requirement of the applicant sisters to post an administrative bond is unnecessary.
[5] The normally applicable requirement for posting of an administrative bond by applicants for a certificate of appointment as estate trustee without a will stems from section 35 of the Estates Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.E.21, which reads as follows:
Bonds
- Except where otherwise provided by law, every person to whom a grant of administration, including administration with the will annexed, is committed shall give a bond to the judge of the court by which the grant is made, to enure for the benefit of the Accountant of the Superior Court of Justice, with a surety or sureties as may be required by the judge, conditioned for the due collecting, getting in, administering and accounting for the property of the deceased, and the bond shall be in the form prescribed by the rules of court, and in cases not provided for by the rules, the bond shall be in such form as the judge by special order may direct. [Emphasis added.]
[6] Since passage of the Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, 2020, S.O. 2020, c.11, which received royal assent on July 7, 2020, section 36 of the Estates Act, supra, has been amended to read as follows:
When security not required
- (1) It is not necessary for the Government of Ontario or any ministry thereof or any Provincial commission or board created under any Act of the Legislature to give any security for the due performance of its duty as executor, administrator, trustee, committee, or in any other office to which it may be appointed by order of the court or under any Act.
Idem
(2) A bond shall not be required where the administration on an intestacy is granted to the surviving spouse of the deceased and where,
(a) the net value of the estate as computed for the purposes of section 45 of the Succession Law Reform Act does not exceed the preferential share prescribed under subsection 45 (6) of that Act; and
(b) there is filed with the application for administration an affidavit setting forth the debts of the estate.
Same
(3) Subject to section 6, a bond shall not be required in respect of a small estate, unless,
(a) a beneficiary of the estate is a minor; or
(b) a beneficiary of the estate is incapable within the meaning of section 6 of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 in respect of an issue in the proceeding, whether or not the person has a guardian.
Same
(4) Subsection (3) does not affect the operation of subsection (2).
Subsequently discovered property
(5) Subsection (3) ceases to apply if, following the discovery of property belonging to the deceased in the circumstances described in subsection 32 (2), the estate ceases to be a small estate.
[Emphasis added.]
[7] Pursuant to the definitions set forth in section 1 of the Estates Act, supra, the term “small estate”, as used in the Act, is defined as “an estate that does not exceed the amount prescribed by regulations made under s.1(2) of the Act, which permits the Lieutenant Governor in Council to “make regulations prescribing an amount for the purposes of the definition of ‘small estate’” in subsection 1(1) of the legislation.
[8] Pursuant to section 1 of O.Reg.110/21 made under the Estates Act, supra, “For the purposes of the definition of ‘small estate’ in section 1 of the Act, the prescribed amount is $150,000”.
[9] As noted above, in the case before me, the total assets of the estate amount to no more than $112,450.02 in personal property. Mr Haggitt’s estate accordingly falls within the definition of a “small estate” for purposes of the Estates Act, supra. Moreover:
a. the applicant requesting a certificate of appointment as estate trustee without a will resides in Ontario, such that section 6 of the Estates Act, supra, has no application;
b. no beneficiary of the estate is a minor; and
c. no beneficiary of the estate is incapable within the meaning of section 6 of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, in respect of any issue in this proceeding.
[10] It follows that, pursuant to the provisions of s.36(3) of the Estates Act, supra, “a bond shall not be required in respect of [this] small estate”. The opening proviso to section 35 of the Estates Act, supra, exempting situations from that section’s ambit “where otherwise provided by law”, applies to this situation.
[11] There accordingly is no need for a formal order dispensing with a bond requirement that does not exist in the circumstances, and in my view the court should not make unnecessary orders.
[12] As the application material filed by the deceased’s mother is otherwise in order, the requested Certificate of Appointment as Estate Trustee Without a Will should issue, without the applicant having to post any administration bond as security.
“Justice I.F. Leach”
Justice I.F. Leach
Date: July 29, 2023