The WESA conference: Everything a trial lawyer needs to know about the Wills, Estates and Succession Act.
Opening Comments
R. TREVOR TODD, disinherited.com, Vancouver
View From a Very Knowledgeable Bench
THE HON. MADAME JUSTICE SANDRA BALLANCE, Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver THE HON. MADAME JUSTICE JANE DARDI, Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Solicitor’s View: WESA-Wise Planning – The Highs and the Lows
ANDREA E. FRISBY, Legacy Tax & Trust Lawyers, Vancouver
Litigator’s View: The Floodgates Have Opened
TARA R. BRITNELL, Hamilton Duncan Armstrong & Stewart, Surrey
Where There is No Will, There May be a Way:
Do Sections 58 and 59 now Unleash a Litigation Tsunami?
MARK WEINTRAUB, Clark Wilson LLP, Vancouver
Intestacy: Update on the Major Changes to the Parentelic Distribution Scheme, Changes for Spouses & the Spousal Home
EDWARD F. MACAU LAY, Edward F. Macaulay Law Corporation, Vancouver
Family Meets WESA: What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You
CAN DACE CHO, Onyx Law Group, Vancouver JUDITH A. JANZEN, Onyx Law Group, Vancouver
Beneficiary Designations:
Which Designated Assets are now Subject to WESA Redistribution?
JOHN W. BILAWICH, Holmes & King, Vancouver
Rule on Rules and Procedure
STANLEY RULE, Sabey Rule LLP, Kelowna
Undue Influence: Shift In Burden of Proof Means More Plaintiffs Wins
R. TREVOR TODD, disinherited.com, Vancouver
Closing Remarks
There is a noted estrangement epidemic amongst dysfunctional families
“Family quarrels are bitter things. They’re not like aches or wounds; they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there is not enough material.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Estrangement is the turning away from a previously held state of affection, comradeship, or allegiance by one party to another or, alternatively, the parties to each other. The meaning has not changed much from its Latin root extraneare, to treat as a stranger.
The phenomenon of children being estranged from one or both parents has risen dramatically in recent years.
Anecdotally, after 40 years of estate litigation practice, I have witnessed the gradual erosion of the family, starting with the divorce laws of 1968 and moving through the social acceptance of common law relationships, children out of wedlock, “blended but lumpy families,” same sex marriage, and so forth. Legally speaking, the times are achanging.
In recent years, I have noted what I consider a silent epidemic of estrangement between parents and one or more of their adult children. In fact estrangement among individuals in families is far more common than most people believe.
We follow the estrangements of movie stars with glee and interest—Lindsay Lohan got a restraining order against her father; Jennifer Anniston stopped talking to her mother in 1996 when her mother wrote a tell-all book; the Tori-Spelling-of-the-week is not talking to a parent or vice versa. All those behaviours foster irreparable estrangement among various family members.
Family estrangement is found everywhere in society, from the wealthiest to the poorest. Although there is a shocking lack of statistics available on family estrangement, contemporaries in other fields, such as family counsellors, report a tremendous increase in the number of family members who no longer communicate with each other.
I believe that estrangement is so painful for the parties involved that often, they do not wish to talk about it.
Family estrangement occurs when certain family members come to an impasse in their relationship. The subject cause or causes of the estrangement, whatever they may be, are so strong, certain family members separate for a long period of time—possibly even for the rest of their lives.
There may be very valid reasons for such estrangement, such as when sexual abuse has occurred upon a child who is then not believed by either parent. A child frequently flees from the family simply to get away from one nightmare that often leads to another on the street.
Family estrangement is never easy for anyone, both within and outside the family.
In my experience as a lawyer, when estrangement occurs, the reasons are usually very understandable, troubling, and valid. The departing family member often has been very badly emotionally damaged in the relationship.
The reasons for estrangement are as diverse as the parties involved. Sometimes there was a very close relationship in the past and something happened that created distance. It may have happened slowly over time or rather suddenly, but once that distance was created, it solidified into estrangement. Alternatively, the relationship was never as close as it could or should have been and the gap just kept getting wider, until there was no relationship at all.
I couldn’t possibly list all the causes for family estrangement. Here are a few significant ones.
1. Intolerance
Intolerance usually manifests in the sense of disapproval of lifestyle choices such as homosexuality; marrying outside a person’s religion, race, nationality, or ethnicity; or another perceived disrespect. Intolerance can lead to stubbornness and small-mindedness when it comes to giving up a grudge or to pettiness and nastiness when it comes to forgiveness.
2. Divorce
Divorce arguably may be the single-most-common cause of family alienation. However amicable the divorce seemed to the parents, resentments can run deep and some children never get over it. Children may wish to live with one parent as opposed to the other. The malice of one parent turning children against the opposite parent can lead to unwarranted estrangement between the child and the “bad” parent or even both parents.
3. Remarriage
Remarriage, especially by the custodial parent, that creates a “blended family” has certainly caused a great number of estrangements. Distance among “first family” members and “second family” members or even a third is quite common, even when people are not cohabiting as a family unit.
4. Personality Disorders
Some parents never intended to be parents; they resented their children and thus were toxic parents. Living with a parent with a narcissistic personality disorder is exceedingly difficult for a child, who invariably fails to win the parent’s approval, let alone love.
5. Illness and Negative Behaviour
They include mental illness, drug and alcoholic addiction, and household violence.
6. Erosion of Self-Esteem
They include neglect, unconcern, and constant humiliations, disappointments, and putdowns.
7. Priorities and Time
Both parents are working and have little time for the children.
8. Unresolved Encounters
They include a long series of rather minor but escalating misunderstandings and overreactions and general stubbornness on both parties to make amends. While the cutting of ties between family members can be surprisingly easy, reconnecting them can be difficult if not impossible to restore.
9. Recurring Family Arguments
Arguments during significant holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas can lead to repeated hostilities, further family division, and avoidance of the special occasion in future.
10. The Unaccepted Spouse
When the marital partner has not been accepted by the family, it becomes awkward for everyone and easier for the estranged party to stay away.
11. An Estrangement Syndrome
Psychologists note that estrangement may be passed from generation to generation, due to the negative role models of the parents. In other words, if you are estranged from your parents, odds are your children will become estranged from you once they become adults.
In a dysfunctional family, the children typically do not receive enough love and care and often end up by default in competition with each other for those necessities of life.
Later, when the parents die, the competition for love may convert into one or more children taking the parents’ money to the exclusion of other siblings, out of a distorted belief they deserve the money. In the mind of the perpetrator(s), the money-grab becomes the substitute for the lost parental love.
As children, we don’t get to choose our family but, as adults, we can decide whom we wish or don’t wish to have in our lives. Even in the best of circumstances, being a member of a family is often a challenge.
To those readers who are estranged from their families, I would encourage group counselling and chat forums to deal with the pain and hopeful reconciliation and healing. That is often easier said than done as it takes a willingness on at least two sides to complete a successful reconciliation.
As reported by the ,Vancouver Province today, The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to review the country’s assisted suicide laws more than two decades after it rejected doctor-assisted dying for people who are terminally ill.
The high court announced Thursday it will hear an appeal in a case that briefly overturned the ban on assisted suicide and offered a British Columbia woman a constitutional exemption to get help in ending her life.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which has argued on behalf of several ill people who claimed they wanted to die with dignity, hailed the decision.
In 2012, Justice Lynn Smith of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the existing law was unconstitutional, but delayed her ruling for a year to allow the federal government to rewrite the statute.
Smith also granted Gloria Taylor an exemption that would have allowed her to seek an assisted death. Taylor was terminally ill with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The federal government appealed the B.C. Supreme Court decision, and the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned the ruling last October, concluding that the 1993 case that upheld the law was binding and that the lower court didn’t have the ability to overturn the decision.
The 20-year-old case that ruled against assisted suicide involved Victoria resident Sue Rodriguez.
Taylor didn’t use the constitutional exemption. She died of an infection in October 2012.
But the family of another woman, 89-year-old Kay Carter who went to Switzerland in January 2010 to end her life, is continuing the court fight with the help of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
“Today we are savouring the knowledge that seriously ill Canadians are going to have the opportunity to make their plea to the court,” said lawyer Grace Pastine, who has argued the case for the association.
“There are few rights more fundamental or more deeply personal than the right to decide how much suffering to endure at the end of life and whether to seek a doctor’s assistance to hasten that, if living becomes unbearable,” she said.
Pastine said a woman named Elayne Shapray, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is seeking the right to die, has joined the challenge to the existing law.
“She would like to be able to choose a peaceful death surrounded by her loved ones and by her family,” Pastine said. “She filed an affidavit in support of our application and explained to the court that she was tormented by the knowledge that she might become trapped in an unbearable dying process and would forfeit the ability to take her own life.”
The association applied to have the appeal process expedited, saying the case is of extreme urgency for some very ill Canadians, but the high court rejected that application, giving no reasons as is customary.
The original case included the association, Lee Carter and Hollis Johnson, the two who took Lee’s mother to Switzerland.
The trial judge skirted the Rodriguez decision by saying the Supreme Court charter rulings in recent years on the guarantees to “life, liberty, and security of the person” allowed for assisted suicide in some cases.
The judge ruled the law must allow physician-assisted suicide in cases involving patients who are diagnosed with a serious illness or disability and who are experiencing “intolerable” physical or psychological suffering with no chance of improvement.
Proponents of assisted suicide argue that the Rodriguez ruling is outdated and that society’s view of the issue has changed significantly.
However, the federal government argues that Rodriguez is the final word on the subject.
NDP Opposition NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said Prime Minister Stephen Harper should not use assisted suicide as a political wedge issue.
Mulcair said the Supreme Court of Canada will probably send the matter back to Parliament to decide, just as it did with prostitution and Vancouver’s safe-injection site, and if that happens there’s a lot of work to be done.
“These are complex issues because people who work in health care are dealing with these issues every day of the week,” he said.
Dr. Will Johnston, chairman of the he Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of BC, which intervened in the case last fall, said he was disappointed in the top court’s decision to hear the appeal.
“The court rejected assisted suicide and euthanasia in 1993 and prevented Canada from taking a wrong turn,” he said.
“Let us hope that by clarifying the issues, the Supreme Court once again confirms the Canadian rejection of suicide and direct killing of the sick, and that we stay the course in providing great symptom control to all who need it.”
Sherlock Holmes? Estate fights to maintain control of famous character as copyright protections expire.
Jason Keyser, Associated Press | January 3, 2014 | Last Updated: Jan 3 6:29 PM ET
More from Associated Press
FotoliaWriter Leslie Klinger is challenging the Conan Doyle Estate, LTD over the right to use the Sherlock Holmes character in new outlets
Are writers free to depict Sherlock Holmes in new mysteries without seeking permission or paying licence fees now that copyright protections have expired on nearly all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales about the pipe-puffing detective?
A federal judge in Chicago says yes — so long as they don’t stray into territory covered in the 10 stories still protected by copyright.
Not so fast, says the Doyle estate, which is considering an appeal this month against the ruling. Descendants of the Scottish physician and author argue he continued to develop the characters of Holmes and Dr. Watson in the later works so they should remain off-limits until the remaining copyrights run out at the end of 2022.
It means you can reprint Conan Doyle’s own stories freely but you can’t make up a new story? It doesn’t make logical sense
“It’s a bogus argument. It means you can reprint Conan Doyle’s own stories freely but you can’t make up a new story? It doesn’t make logical sense,” said author Leslie Klinger, who brought the case against the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. to settle the matter.
With last week’s ruling in hand, Mr. Klinger plans to finish work on In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, a book of original short stories featuring characters and other elements from Conan Doyle’s work. He is co-editing the book with plans to publish this fall.
AP Photo/FileSir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, in 1930. Writer Leslie Klinger is challenging the Conan Doyle Estate, LTD over the right to use the Sherlock Holmes character in new tales.
If appeal judges hold it up, the ruling could lift the threat of legal action for the untold scores of writers churning out pastiches and fan fiction without permission. Most of them fly under the radar. In Mr. Klinger’s case, the estate demanded $5,000, he said.
“Whatever decision they make will essentially determine the fate of many characters, not just Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, but very intricate characters such as James Bond. … What happens as copyrights expire on Ian Fleming’s original stories?” said Doyle estate attorney William Zieske.
The ruling could also weaken the value of the Sherlock franchise to the point that major publishers and movie producers could also decide to move ahead with projects without licensing deals, said Paul Supnik, a Beverly Hills, California attorney specializing in copyright and entertainment law who was not connected with the case.
“At the very least it’s going to affect the bargaining power as to what the estate can do in trying to sell it to the studio,” Mr. Supnik said.
At the heart of the dispute is whether a character can be copyright protected over an entire series of works. The Doyle estate argues that a basic element of copyright law allows for that if the character is highly delineated, as opposed to a two-dimensional cartoon-like character who doesn’t change much over time.
FileThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone, left.
In ruling against the estate, Judge Ruben Castillo called that a “novel legal argument” that was “counter to the goals of the Copyright Act.” The lawsuit was filed in Chicago because a literary agent for the Doyle estate is based in Illinois.
There’s no question that Holmes and Watson are highly complex characters. Conan Doyle produced a total of four Sherlock Holmes novels and 56 stories between 1887 and 1927.
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Why Sherlock Holmes is an unclassifiable character
Mr. Klinger argues that everything you really need to know about Holmes and Watson is in the novels and stories published before 1923 that are in the public domain in the U.S. That includes their family backgrounds, education and a slew of character traits: Holmes’ Bohemian nature and cocaine use, erratic eating habits, his Baker Street lodgings, his methods of reasoning, his clever use of disguise, his skill in chemistry and even his weapon of choice, a loaded hunting crop.
“Everything that the lay person would think of as being a characteristic of Holmes or Watson is in those pre-1923 stories,” said Mr. Klinger, who is also an attorney and lives in Malibu, California. “In fact, some would say you could pick up almost everything you need from the very first story.”
James Cowan/National PosThe Toronto Public Library displays Sir Arthur Conan Doyle collectables.
The other 10 stories have new biographical footnotes, including a mention that Watson had a second wife and played rugby in his youth.
But the Doyle estate says there are other significant elements in those later stories, such as Holmes’ “mellowing” personality and the shift in Holmes’ and Watson’s relationship from flatmates and collaborators to closest friends.
Thus, to depict Holmes and Watson based only on parts of the canon that pre-date 1923 would be something of an artistic crime and ignore the extent to which the characters continued to evolve, said Doyle attorney Mr. Zieske.
“That’s the essence of literature, how people change through different experiences,” Mr. Zieske said. “And to reduce true literary characters to a cardboard cutout, parts of which can be carved off, I think does literature a great disservice.”
Forbes Magazine’s Top earning Dead Celebrities 2012 have now been reported, once again showing that many people are worth considerably more dead than they could have ever imagined.
It is not just artists and celebrities who have this earning ability,as almost anyone who has the potential for either fame or residual earnings can create such incredible wealth post death.
Topping the list this year is newly dead Elizabeth Taylor at $210 million, beating out the previous years top earner, Michael Jackson, whose estate income fell to a mere $145 million.
I hope his $40 billion estate claim succeeds, so as to put him back in top earning spot hereafter.
Third spot Fat Elvis is consistent at $55 million, as is 6th spot Bob Marley at $17 million.
Marilyn has been dead for 51 years and her estate still made $10 million last year, which is about 10 million more than she ever made while alive.
Albert Einstein died 7 years before Marilyn and he also brought in $10 million for his estate.
Steve McQueen died in 1980, and his star appeal then, presently translates into $8 million per year.
Police arrest ‘dead’ banker accused of losing millions of investor dollars. A south Georgia bank director accused of losing millions of investor dollars before vanishing was homeless and worked odd jobs before his arrest earlier this week, a U.S. marshal told a federal judge Thursday.
U.S. District Judge James Graham in Brunswick formally notified Aubrey Lee Price of the charges against him. The 47-year-old was arrested Tuesday during a traffic stop on Interstate 95 in the coastal Georgia city. The judge set a bond hearing for Monday in Savannah.
Price had disappeared in June 2012 after sending a rambling letter to his family and acquaintances that investigators described as a confession. The letter said he had lost millions in investors’ dollars and planned to kill himself by jumping from a ferry in Florida.
A Florida judge declared him dead a year ago, but FBI authorities had said they didn’t believe Price was dead and continued to search for him.
The U.S. marshal said at the hearing Thursday that Price told authorities he’d been working as a migrant worker, accepting cash for odd jobs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
An FBI spokesman said Wednesday that Price told authorities his family didn’t know he was still alive and that he had returned to Georgia to renew the tag on his truck. It wasn’t clear where he’d been for the previous 18 months.
Price was indicted in federal court in Savannah in July 2012 on charges of taking $21 million from a small south Georgia bank where he was director. He was also accused of taking many millions more from investors in his money management business. He faces federal wire fraud charges in New York.
My depression and discouragement have driven me to deep anxiety, fear and shame
Price left his home in south Georgia on June 16, 2012, telling his family he was headed to Guatemala for business, authorities have said. Two days later, Price’s family and acquaintances received letters saying he was going to Key West to board a ferry headed to Fort Meyers and planned to jump off somewhere along the way to end his life.
“My depression and discouragement have driven me to deep anxiety, fear and shame. I am emotionally overwhelmed and incapable of continuing in this life,” said a rambling confession letter investigators believe was written by Price.
AP Photo/FBIIn this June 2012 photo released by the FBI, Aubrey Lee Price is seen in Key West, Fla.
“I created false statements, covered up my losses and deceived and hurt the very people I was trying to help,” the letter said.
Credit card records showed he purchased dive weights and a ferry ticket. The ferry ticket was scanned at the boarding point, and security camera footage released by the FBI about six weeks after his disappearance showed Price at the Key West, Fla., airport and ferry terminal on the day he disappeared.
He was arrested Tuesday when Glynn County sheriff’s deputies pulled over a 2001 Dodge on the interstate because they thought its window tint was too dark, Sheriff E. Neal Jump was quoted by the Journal-Constitution as saying. Deputies arrested Price after finding fake IDs in the vehicle.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the 47-year-old’s disappearance prompted a search by aircraft. The agency says the search put rescuers in harm’s way unnecessarily and cost the agency more than $173,000.
Creating a hoax or making a false distress call is a felony. The maximum penalty for making a false distress call is six years in prison, a $5,000 fine, a $250,000 criminal fine and reimbursement to
The Wills, Estates and Succession Act passed by the B.C. legislature on Sept. 24, 2009, finally comes into force in the new year and it’s a sweeping change.
After March 31, the new law brings together and updates various statutes with the twin aims of providing greater certainty for individuals who leave a will and simplifying the process for those responsible for distributing an estate. Among its benefits, the government says the act clarifies the process of inheritance when a person dies without leaving a will; makes the process easier for a spouse to transfer the jointly held title of the family home when a partner dies; clearly outlines the sequence in which to look for heirs; provides the courts with more latitude to ensure the last wishes of the dead are respected; clarifies obligations relating to property inheritance in the context of Nisga’a and Treaty First Nation lands; and lowers the minimum age at which a person can make a will from 19 to 16 years old.
New probate rules also come into effect with the act, which was the product years ago of a long public process that included the participation of the Supreme Court and the B.C. Law Institute.
The hope is these rules will ensure consistency for probate applicants and streamline court processes to provide more timely service.
Still, there are nervous nellies.
A recent meeting to explain the changes to some 300 lawyers produced as much anxiety as it eased: Solicitors wrung their hands with concern; litigators rubbed theirs at the prospect of more, not fewer lawsuits as a result of the changes.
Section 58, for instance, introduces a radically significant idea about what can be considered a will, saying: “the court may, as the circumstances require, order that a record or document, or writing or marking on a will or document be fully effective as though it had been made a) as the will or part of the will of the deceased person, b) as a revocation, alteration or revival of the will of the deceased person, or c) as the testamentary intention of the deceased person.”
Vancouver lawyer Trevor Todd, who runs disinherited.com and participated in the development of the law, says this could create awkward situations.
“Until WESA comes into force,” Todd said, “the court has little power to cure a failure to comply with technical requirements in executing a will. WESA allows the court to look to another ‘record, document or writing, or marking on a will’ to help determine the will-maker’s true intentions, and to give effect to them. Accordingly, the court will have the power to order that a written or electronic record stand as a person’s last will.”
He said that could include an unsigned or improperly executed will, lawyer’s notes from discussions with the person, a copy of a will stored on the person’s computer or electronic tablet, an email sent from the person setting out his or her testamentary intentions.
It will become possible for emails to be held out as the true intention of the will, he said, or for a separation agreement to surface that may be held out to be a statement of the spouse’s testamentary intentions and may be declared by the court to be a valid alteration or an actual will.
Rectification also may be ordered if the court determines that an otherwise valid will does not carry out the will-maker’s intentions because of an accidental slip or omission, a misunderstanding of the will-maker’s instructions by the lawyer, notary or another person involved in the preparation of the will, or a failure to carry out the will-maker’s instructions in drafting the will.
Those increased powers vested in the court are probably the most controversial changes.
“The court’s expanded powers will likely lead to increased litigation, such as by disappointed heirs coming forward with email or other writings of the deceased to demonstrate that the will does not show the deceased’s ‘true intentions,’ ” Todd said.
In terms of other changes, right now, unless a will states you are specifically contemplating marriage to a certain person, marrying after the execution of a will revokes it. WESA removes this stipulation.
“It had been thought that this requirement may not be wellknown by the general public, and thus could accidentally frustrate the intentions of the will-maker,” Todd said.
“As well, given the rising number of common law marriages, this requirement would apply inconsistently to formally married and common law couples.”
Todd added that he thought the new law brought big improvement by reversing the onus in cases where allegations of undue influence arose so that it falls on those who received the gift.
If the validity of a will is challenged on the ground of undue influence at the moment, the onus is on the person making the allegation to prove it.
Initially, the law proposed removing the right of an adult independent child to contest a parent’s estate because the child was not adequately provided for in the will.
Todd was among those who fought that particular proposal and prevailed so that the centuryold provision was not changed. In general, WESA gives the courts much greater leeway to give effect to the intentions of the willmaker – whether that increases or reduces certainty, we’ll have to wait and see how the judges exercise their new authority.
Family asks court to let Abbotsford woman die under terms of her living will.
Nursing home has refused to stop spoon-feeding woman in vegetative state from advanced Alzheimer’s
BY KEVIN GRIFFIN, VANCOUVER SUN
Handout photo of Margot Bentley. In 1999, Margot Bentley, then in her late 60s, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She used to be a nurse who cared for Alzheimer’s patients and wrote a living will that she should not receive medical care and be allowed to die.
The family of an 82-year-old women with Alzheimer’s so advanced she’s in a vegetative state asked the B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday to order her nursing home to live up to her living will and stop feeding her the food and liquids that are keeping her alive.
Margaret (Margot) Bentley has lived at Maplewood Seniors Care Society in Abbotsford since 2009. Bentley is now at Stage 7 of the seven stages of Alzheimer’s, the most advanced level of decline, lawyer Kieran Bridge told Justice Bruce Greyell.
Bridge is representing Bentley’s husband, John, and her daughter, Katherine Hammond, in a lawsuit against the nursing home, Fraser Health Authority and the provincial government.
For the past three years, Bentley has been spoon fed by nursing home staff. Her eyes are closed most of the time, she doesn’t recognize any of her family members, she hasn’t spoken and she has only limited physical movement.
Her cognitive decline is so severe her “brain no longer appears to be able to tell her body what to do,” Bridge said.
Bridge told the court that Bentley had extensive experience working with patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia during her years as a registered nurse. He said she made it clear in her living will, which she signed and had witnessed in 1991, that she didn’t want to be kept alive simply to prolong her existence.
Bridge said her living will spells out that she if suffered from an incurable disease that she “be allowed to die and not kept alive by artificial means” including “nourishment or liquids.
“Following her diagnosis in 1999,” Bridge said, “she frequently expressed her wish that she did not want to live in a state of advanced Alzheimer’s or dementia.”
Bridge, reading statements from Bentley’s husband, said she “frequently expressed relief” that she had made her wishes so clear to family members. “She frequently said: ‘Don’t let it happen to me’,” Bridge said.
Bridge took the court through the story of Bentley’s life, from a baby born to a single mother and then adopted. He showed a binder with photos of Bentley as a woman, when she graduated as a nurse in the 1950s and another of her fishing.
In 1981, Bentley married John and became a realtor. They had a winter home in Mexico that they regularly visited until 2004 when her health deteriorated to the point that she could no longer travel.
“The reason I’m showing you these photographs is that they show she had a full, active and rewarding life,” Bridge said. “The contrast between what her life was and what her existence is now is startling.”
Court documents filed by the family include a 2011 statement by her husband John. He pleads with the director of care at the nursing home to follow his wife’s wishes and not feed her any longer.
“I’m begging you to instruct your staff to abide with Margot’s wishes as she has stated in this Living Will,” he said. “Do not prolong this existence.”
In another document, the lawyer representing the provincial government said nursing home staff would be helping Bentley commit suicide if they stopped feeding her.
“To the extent that (the patient’s) statement of wishes (living will) constitutes an instruction to assist her in committing suicide, it cannot be enforced without the commission of an offence,” Crown lawyer Jonathan Penner said.
In Canada, euthanasia is illegal.
The defendants argue that spoon feeding is basic care, not medical care, so cannot legally be stopped. They’re expected to make their arguments today and Thursday in court.
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“As you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are”
Walt Disney is likely rolling in his grave to learn that his twin grandchildren are embarking on protracted litigation this week in a courtroom only 20 miles from Disneyland itself.
Walt’s twin grandchildren, Brad and Michelle Lund, 43, have not seen each other in the last four years due to the vitriol involved in the litigation.
Their mother Sharon, was the daughter of Walt Disney and she died in 1993, leaving trust funds totalling $300 million, to be distributed to her two children on their 35th, 40th and 45th birthdays.
At each of those milestones they were to be given a 20% slice of whatever was in their trust.
The problem arose due to the another term in her will, whereby the three trustees were instructed to withhold payment if either of the children had not “demonstrated the maturity and financial ability to manage and utilize such funds in a prudent and reasonable manner”.
After Brad was told that he did not meet these standards, while his twin Michelle did, she received her payments and Brad did not receive his.
Brad is backed in the court case by the twins natural father. Ahe schism had been made worse due to the fact that Michelle suffered a brain aneurysm in 2009, and the trustees refused to allow her to be moved by her father from California to a rehabilitation center in Arizona. After Michelle’s recovery, she seems to have sided with the trustees in the ongoing dispute with Brad and her father.
Brad commenced a petition in California Supreme Court accusing the three trustees of a breach of trust, and demanding payment of his birth a lump sums, the removal of the trustees, and punitive damages against them.
Brad maintains that his lawsuit is not against his sister Michelle, but instead is against the trustees, but it is difficult to separate the two.
Further complicating the family squabble it is Brad’s assertion that the twins half- sister Victoria died, leaving no children, but received her 35th birthday distribution even though she was abusing drugs and alcohol.
So ultimately one of the world’s most well-known and beloved men, who built “The Happiest Place On Earth”, only to see the grandchildren litigate it away.
R. Trevor Todd is pleased to announce that “Pete” has joined R. Trevor Todd, Linda Yardley, Judith Milliken Q.C., and Jazzy in the practice of wills, estates and estate litigation.
There is a noted estrangement epidemic amongst dysfunctional families
