Category: Breach of Fiduciary Duty
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Breach of Fiduciary Duty
There are special relationships that give rise to fiduciary responsibilities. When managing assets or making decisions on someone else’s behalf, a fiduciary has ethical and legal obligations to act in that person’s best interests. Fiduciary duty examples include trustee-beneficiary, attorney-client, and director-company’s shareholders. When someone takes on the role of a fiduciary, they are held […]
BC Executor’s Fee Disallowed Due to “Dismal Failures” in Administering the Estate
BC law states that an executor is entitled to remuneration of up to a maximum of 5% of the gross aggregate value of the estate, unless the deceased’s will provides otherwise. In Zaradic Estate (Re), 2021 BCSC 1037 the will provided that the executors could claim remuneration in the amount of 10% of the estate. […]
BC Divorce Law: Help! My Spouse Drained Our Joint Line of Credit
Under BC divorce law, the rules about division of family property and debt apply to both married couples and unmarried couples who have been living together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years. Many spouses have joint bank accounts or joint lines of credit, intended to be used to pay for various things […]
Constructive Trust Imposed in Absence of Unjust Enrichment
Canadian courts have developed the remedial constructive trust to prevent unjust enrichment. Pursuant to seminal cases such as Pettkus v. Becker, [1980] 2 S.C.R. 834, it is firmly established that a constructive trust may be imposed (even in the absence of wrongful conduct on the part of the defendant such as breach of fiduciary duty), […]
Fiduciary Duty: Agent’s Fraud Cured by Constructive Trust
Let’s discuss “constructive trusts” as a remedy for fraud or disloyal conduct by an agent (agents owe a “fiduciary duty” to their client, which means they must act loyally and in good faith toward their client). If a real estate agent buys for himself a property that he had been negotiating for on behalf of […]
Can You Have Unequal Division of Estate in a Will?
Quick answer: Yes, you can divide your estate unequally among your children in BC. The law protects testamentary freedom, but it also lets a child ask the court to vary a will under section 60 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act. An unequal division holds up when the will-maker’s reasons are valid (based in […]
Fiduciary Duty: Are Beneficiaries Dependent or Vulnerable?
The case of Lac Minerals Ltd. v. International Corona Resources Ltd., [1989] 2 SCR 574 raised the question of when one party owes a fiduciary duty to another, even where there is no contract between them. It is the leading case in Canada on the ways fiduciary and confidential relationships come into being in business. The […]
Can You Rebut the Presumption of Resulting Trust? How Legal Evidence Can Change the Outcome
Quick answer: Yes. The presumption of resulting trust can be rebutted with evidence of what the person who transferred the property actually intended at the time. In British Columbia, a gratuitous transfer to an adult child is presumed to be held in trust for the transferor, but proof — on the balance of probabilities — […]