On or about December 16, 2017, Ms. McKinnon received a positive result on a pregnancy test. She visited her family doctor on December 17, 2017, and was told that she was just over five weeks pregnant. Ms. McKinnon says she subsequently telephoned Health Canada, as directed on the Health Canada website for “adverse reactions”, and left her name and phone number, along with a brief description of her situation. This call was not returned. Ms. McKinnon says she also telephoned Pfizer and spoke with an agent from the Product Side Effects department. She was not provided with any further information from Pfizer.

Undue Influence is a legal doctrine to prevent elder individuals from being taken advantage of by others; most often, their children or spouses.

The deceased in this case had six children and left no will; she had passed away in 2015. Three years prior to her death, at the age of 81, the deceased purchased a home with her youngest child (“Brad”) naming him as a Joint Tenant; Brad did not contribute any monies to the purchase of the home yet was named as a Joint Tenant. As Madam Justice D. MacDonald described: “Brad and [the Deceased] had an unconventional mother/son relationship. He spent almost every day with [the Deceased] from 2002 until her death in 2015. After they moved to the Sunshine Coast, Brad was [the Deceased’s] only companion. She had little contact with her other children after they moved.

“If Mr. X arrives at a pub at around 12:40 a.m. and leaves at or about the 2 a.m. closing time after being served “four beers and four or five shots” and then gets in his car to drive home, could the pub be found to be contributorily negligent if a collision ensued causing injury?”

This was the main question posed by Mr. Justice Funt in Garisto v Goudie, 2021 BCSC 1257 (CanLII).

Hailing from the City of Port Coquitlam, Staff Sgt. Mander excelled in leadership at Terry Fox Secondary School graduating with a 4.0 GPA and as the Captain of the senior boys’ basketball team. Thereafter, Staff Sgt. Mander starred for the Simon Fraser University’s Mens’ Basketball Team (the only NCAA Division 2 team in Canada), as a four-year scholarship player.

TRI-CITY LEGAL’s, Vic S. Maan interviewed by prominent and national legal publication, Canadian Lawyer Magazine, due to this experience and expertise.

In today’s blog, we discuss the recent case of Vespaziani v Lau, 2021 BCSC 1224, one of the first decisions to consider ICBC’s new, likely unconstitutional, three expert limit. Rather than bothering you with superfluous commentary, we rely heavily on the Trial Judges comments.

In the construction of wills, the court’s primary purpose is to determine the intention of the testator (aka the will-maker). It is well settled law that the intention of a testator must be gathered from the language of the entire will, construed as a whole. It is only when the testator’s intention cannot be arrived at with reasonable certainty, by giving the natural and ordinary meaning to the words which he/she has used, that resort is to be had to the rules of construction which have been developed by the courts in the interpretation of other wills

A Canadian subpoena has no force or effect on US Citizens presently residing in America.

As lawyers, it is important for us to advocate our client’s rights while always remaining objective. Objectivity - not pride, ego, vigor, greed, etc. - is the lawyers’ ‘sun’, whereas emotions are a lawyer’s ‘kryptonite’. Lawyers must balance the costs of litigation, with the merits of their client’s position. This is most true in cases involving family.

The reason for the adjournment can therefore be attributed to the defendants’ choice to delay conducting their examination for discovery of the plaintiff until February 25, 2021, about two months prior to the trial date, leaving very little time for follow-up document discovery. A trial date set for a case should not be adjourned simply because one side chooses to unduly delay discovery procedures, thereby limiting the time available for further discovery procedures.

TRI-CITY LEGAL does not treat a will like a slice of Pepperoni or Hawaiian as opposed to online and virtual services.

Pleading undue influence places the burden of proof on the Beneficiary to confirm there was no such influence. TRI-CITY LEGAL has extensive experience prosecuting Undue Influence claims and can assist anyone that may have been disinherited due to suspicious circumstances: examples of such circumstances include, but are not limited to, the following:

-when the unequal transfer of the will-maker’s property occurs a short-time before his/her passing; and/or

-when the will-maker’s first Will is amended, unequally dividing the will-maker’s estate/assets/funds a short-time before his/her passing.