Court of Appeal Decision in Gould v. Royal Trust

The British Columbia Court of Appeal dismissed the plaintiff's appeal in Gould v. Royal Trust Corp. of Canada, 2010 BCCA 424.

As I wrote here, the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed Barbara Gould's claim to vary her mother's will under the Wills Variation Act. Ms. Gould's mother, Sylvia Gould, had left the most of her estate to her, Sylvia Gould's, three sons to the exclusion of her daughter. Mr. Justice Pearlman found that Sylvia Gould's reason for leaving most of her estate to her other children -- that she had already given her daughter a cottage property in Ontario--were rational and valid. Accordingly, he dismissed Barbara Gould's claim under the Wills Variation Act, but did award her $75,000 for unjust enrichment to compensate her for her expenditures and labour in providing her mother care.

Barbara Gould appealed the decision to the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which upheld Mr. Justice Pearlman's decision.