Reasons For Disinheriting Daughter
Todd v MacDonald Estate 2009 BCSC 677 is an example of a wills variation claim that succeeded, on the basis that the court found that the testator’s reasons for disinheriting her daughter, were not accurate nor rational.
The testator had 2 children from 2 different marriages.
The older daughter was on good terms with her mother until 1996 when they had an argument over the testator’s refusal to to the plaintiff where her grandmother was located.
The plaintiff told her mother that she was a controlling person.
The plaintiff did not see her mother again before she died in 2007, but did speak to her on the phone several times a year.
The testator left the daughter $1, and the remaining estate of $394,000 entirely to her son.
The testator’s stated reasons in her will were “the fact that there has beeen no favorourable communication between us in any way for approximately 20 years”.
The court found that a reasonable parent would not, after the heat of the moment subsided, regard the 1996 argument, in its context, as a reason to disinherit the plaintiff.
The rationale for disinheriting the plaintiff was not valid, nor was it consistent with the discharge of the testatrix’s parental obligations.
While the son had a close relationship with his mother, it was partly because they lived in the same city.
The court awarded the daughter 40% percent of the estate and the remaining 60% to the son.
disinherited.com strongly approves of the rationale applied in this case.
