http://ift.tt/1DfJrBS
Huh. I don't know what the relevant laws are in Canada, and maybe the judge's ruling followed them. But people should be able to decide who is in and out of their will even if the reasons are stupid. Possibly there should be some exceptions to this that I have not thought of. But this shouldn't be one of them.
I also like the judge's weasel wording "It is clear and uncontradicted, in my view..." It is contradicted - by the decedent himself, speaking through his will, which gives a different reason - which may well be pretextual, but does contradict the judge's view nonetheless.
Somewhat related Illinois case here.
Quote:
When Eric Spence died two years ago, with no family by the curmudgeon’s bedside, the Jamaican-born man left a last will and testament that disinherited the daughter he raised and left all his worldly belongings to the daughter he hadn’t seen in more than 30 years. “I specifically bequeath nothing to my daughter, Verolin Spence, as she has had no communication with me for several years and has shown no interest in me as her father,” the spiteful 71-year-old Maple widower wrote in his will. But in reality, that wasn’t the real reason he cut Verolin out of his will: He was angry that she had given birth to a white man’s child. “In about September 2002, my relationship with my father came crashing down,” recalled Verolin Spence, 51, in a court affidavit. “That is the time when I told my father that I was pregnant. When he found out that the father of my child-to-be was white, my father told me that he was ashamed of me.” From that moment on, she said he refused to return her phone calls and wanted nothing to do with her or her son. In a rare judgment released Tuesday, a Superior Court judge in Newmarket set aside Spence’s will and divided his $400,000 estate equally between his two daughters. “It is clear and uncontradicted, in my view, that the reason for disinheriting Verolin, as articulated by the deceased, was one based on a clearly stated racist principle,” ruled Justice C.A. Gilmore. |
Huh. I don't know what the relevant laws are in Canada, and maybe the judge's ruling followed them. But people should be able to decide who is in and out of their will even if the reasons are stupid. Possibly there should be some exceptions to this that I have not thought of. But this shouldn't be one of them.
I also like the judge's weasel wording "It is clear and uncontradicted, in my view..." It is contradicted - by the decedent himself, speaking through his will, which gives a different reason - which may well be pretextual, but does contradict the judge's view nonetheless.
Somewhat related Illinois case here.
Canadian judge overturns dead guy's will as "racist"
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