Skip to main content
  • Our Team
  • News & Resources
  • Contact Us

Home
Our practice areas
  • Business
    • Kelly Santini LLP does business legal work in Ottawa, Eastern Ontario and beyond

      Business

      • Aviation
      • Banking & Finance
      • Business Formation & Corporate Governance
      • Commercial Agreements
      • Employment Law
      • Franchising
      • Life Sciences
      • Mergers, Acquisitions & Sales
      • Securities
      • Succession Planning
      • Tax
      • Technology
  • Litigation & Dispute Resolution
    • Dispute resolution practice area menu for Kelly Santini

      Litigation & Dispute Resolution

      • Alternative Dispute Resolution
      • Bankruptcy & Insolvency
      • Commercial Litigation
      • Construction & Real Estate Disputes
      • Employment
      • Estate Litigation
      • Insurance Defence
  • Commercial Real Estate & Development
    • Commercial real estate menu for Kelly Santini LLP

      Commercial Real Estate & Development

      • Building Permits and Building Code Compliance
      • Condominium and Co-op Development
      • Construction Liens
      • Conversions of Rental Buildings
      • Enforcement of By-Laws
      • Enviromental Issues
      • Expropriations
      • Finance
      • Joint Ventures
      • Landlord & Tenant Disputes
      • Leasing
      • Mixed Use Developments
      • Municipal Planning and Land Use
      • Property Development and Management
      • Property Management
      • Purchase & Sale
      • Security
      • Subdivisions Plans, Severances and Part Lot Control Exemptions
      • Zoning and Other Municipal By-Law Issues
  • Not-For-Profit
    • Kelly Santini LLP also does not-for-profit work

      Not-for-profit

      • Charitable Foundations
      • Charitable Registration
      • Charitable Trusts
      • Dispute Resolutions
      • Employment
      • Fundraising and Gift Planning
      • Incorporation
      • Restructuring
      • Risk Management, Insurance & D&O
      • Sports Associations
      • Strategic Planning
  • Personal
    • Kelly Santini LLP does personal legal work in Ottawa, Eastern Ontario and beyond

      Personal

      • Employment
      • Estate Administration
      • Estate Litigation
      • Estate Planning
      • Family
      • Powers of Attorney
      • Personal Injury
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Wills & Trusts

You Can’t Just Take Alicent Hightower’s Word For It: Corroborating Evidence In Estate Litigation

  • Print

inheritance_dispute_will_estate_litigation.jpg

Illustration of relatives fighting over possessions under a portrait of the deceased
Spoiler alert: This article contains House of the Dragon finale spoilers!
 
If you’ve seen the final episodes of House of the Dragon, then you know that the King, on his deathbed, made some vague and garbled statements about who should inherit the throne. The Queen, the sole witness of those statements, interpreted them to mean that her son should inherit, rather than her stepdaughter. When the Queen communicated this exchange to the powerbrokers of the Kingdom, it was greeted with skepticism by some. 
 
I haven’t been able to get this out of my head for the last month, because of the evidentiary issues that frequently come up in estate litigation. Under Ontario’s Evidence Act, when an individual makes a claim against an estate, their claim must be supported by independent, corroborating evidence. It’s not enough to simply say, “The Queen told me so.”
 
This was addressed a few months ago by the Superior Court in Ottawa (McKenzie v Hill, 2022 ONSC 4881), when Justice Williams assessed the affidavit evidence of an applicant looking to validate a handwritten note of the deceased as a testamentary document. The applicant’s affidavit evidence in support of his claim was to the effect that the deceased had “told him so” (I’m paraphrasing). The applicant also submitted affidavit evidence from his daughter-in-law, similarly supporting his claim.
 
The Court was not satisfied with either affidavit. Justice Williams found that she could not accept the daughter-in-law’s evidence as independent of the applicant’s evidence, as it was mainly a repetition of the applicant’s evidence and could therefore suffer from the same flaws. On the facts, the Court was not satisfied that the deceased’s handwritten note met the requirements of a valid testamentary document.
 
Takeaways
 
Filing repetitive affidavits from different individuals doesn’t meet the requirement for independent, corroborating evidence. I’ve seen affidavits that are identical except for the name under the signature line, and it just won’t cut it. (The current record is four identical affidavits.)
 
When the Court is presented with two opposing sets of facts, one that is uncorroborated and one that is supported by independent or documentary corroboration, the Court is likely to favour the latter, because saying the King “told you so” on his deathbed is just downright suspicious.
 

joshua-vickery.jpg

Joshua Vickery insurance defense and estate litigation lawyer
Joshua Vickery
 
Every client. Any issue. What's important to you is essential to us. Contact us today.

Downtown

2401-160 Elgin Street
Ottawa, ON K2P 2P7

613.238.6321

West End

301-2301 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, ON K2B 7G3

613.829.7171

Our Firm

  • About us
  • Recruitment
  • Community
  • Our team
  • News & resources
  • National & international network

Services

  • Business
  • Litigation & dispute resolution
  • Commercial real estate & development
  • Not-for-profit
  • Personal

Follow Kelly Santini LLP

The KS Newsletter

Stay up to date with our legal updates. Sign-up here.

 

  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Use
  • Accessibility
  • © 2021 Kelly Santini LLP