Wes Mussio successfully argued at the British Columbia Supreme Court to change the will of a deceased husband that did not provide for his common-law spouse of seven years. On behalf of the common-law wife, Mr. Mussio successfully achieved an award of at least $150,000 in a decision made on February 28th of 2014.
The Deceased individual in this case was born in 1938. He was married for 30 years and then divorced from his wife. The Deceased passed away in 2012, and was survived by two children from his marriage and four grandchildren, who were the Defendants in this case.
Our client, who was the Plaintiff in this case, came to Canada in 2003. She began living together with the Deceased in 2004. During their relationship, the Deceased supported the Plaintiff financially and the Plaintiff cared for the Deceased, particularly when his health declined.
The Deceased wrote a will in 1999 that divided his estate between his surviving children and grandchildren. Obviously, the Plaintiff was not included in the will because it was written before she met the Deceased. Therefore, according to Deceased’s will, the Plaintiff was left without any part of the Deceased’s estate when he passed away.
The Defendants did not dispute the fact that the Plaintiff and the Deceased were in a common-law relationship for over seven years by the time of the deceased’s death. Therefore, the Defendants conceded the Plaintiff was entitled to a portion of the Deceased’s estate. However, they argued the amount should to be small, and within the range of 1/8th of the estate.
On behalf of the Plaintiff, Mr. Mussio applied to the Court to change the Deceased’s will to include the Plaintiff. Mr. Mussio argued that, according to the law, the Deceased had legal and moral responsibilities to provide for his children and his spouse. The Court agreed.
In considering the circumstances, the Court ruled that the Plaintiff should have whichever was the larger, either 2/7ths of the Deceased’s estate or $150,000, after all the accounting was complete. The Court also found that the Plaintiff was entitled to a larger portion of the deceased’s estate despite the facts that he accumulated most of his estate prior to meeting the Plaintiff, and that the Plaintiff was relatively young, not disadvantaged by the relationship, and had a career of her own.