Wills Variation Claims (16:VII)

LSLAP Manual
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v • d • e

A. Application Under the Act

WESA gives the court the power to vary a will. Only the spouse of the Will-maker or the Will-maker’s children can commence an action to vary a will. The limitation period for commencing an action to vary a will is 180 days from the grant of probate, per s 61(1)(a).

A wills variation action is commenced by a Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim. The ground of an action is that the Will-maker failed to “make adequate provision for the proper maintenance and support of the Will-maker’s spouse or children” (WESA, s 60).

When determining what constitutes adequate provision in a will, courts have considered the following:

actual need, which varies with age and dependency;
justifiable expectation based upon a dependency upon the Will-maker or an actual contribution made by the claimant to the Will-maker’s estate;
Will-maker’s intention and reasons for making his or her will; and
the size of the Will-maker’s estate.

See Lukie v Helgason & Lukie (1976), 26 RFL 164 (questioned) and Newstead v Newstead Estate (1996), 11 ETR (2d) 236 (BCSC) for detailed discussions of the above factors.

However, the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Tataryn v Tataryn Estate (1994), 93 BCLR (2d) 145 provides a different focus for the determination of s 2 claims. The court considered the following factors in deciding what constitutes an “adequate, just, and equitable” provision in a will:

the Will-maker’s legal obligations – maintenance and property allocations which the law would support during the Will-maker’s lifetime; and
the Will-maker’s moral obligations – society’s reasonable expectations, based on community standards, of what a judicious person would do in the circumstances.

Where the size of the estate allows, surviving spouses and children are entitled to an equitable share under WESA even in the absence of need.

A. Application Under the Act

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