Legal Blog

Resulting Trust Presumption

Gastle v. Gastle 2017 Ont SCJ

Testator bequeathed his assets to his 2 sons equally. One was the estate trustee. He was also a joint owner with the testator of 5 bank accounts worth $85,000. The other son released the estate trustee, not knowing of the 5 bank accounts. When he did find out about them, he sued for his share of the $85,000. The judge held that the release did not estop him from doing so. The estate trustee had certified that the interim statement described all realisable assets of the estate and the release stated that it was given in consideration of the completion of the administration and distribution of the estate in accordance with the interim distribution statement. The existence of the bank accounts was not disclosed in that statement. The judge further held that the estate trustee did not meet his onus to demonstrate that, when the testator made him a joint owner of the accounts, the testator intended to gift the bank accounts to him on his death. He did not meet the onus because he was unable to corroborate his own evidence in accordance with section 13 of the Evidence Act. The court decided that the trustee had held the bank accounts by way of a resulting trust for the estate.

Written by Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.