Article written by Charles Ticker, from the Sibling Fight Estate Law Blog.
A recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal sets out the pitfalls of litigating estate disputes. This case involved a dispute between a brother and sister over their late parents’ farm. Gary and Louanne Mountain are the son and daughter of the late John “Jack” and Helen Mountain. Jack and Helen owned and operated a Holstein dairy farm in Caledon, Ontario. The farm had been in the Mountain family since 1830. Gary worked the farm as his full-time occupation together with his late father for 24 years. He was the fifth-generation of Mountains to operate the farm.
Jack suddenly died of cancer on November 28, 2001. While he always mentioned that the farm and most of the farm assets would be transferred to Gary, he did not make specific provisions for this in his will. (more…)
