Law360 Canada ( January 11, 2022, 7:05 AM EST) -- Appeal by plaintiff from a decision determining that she was not a spouse within the meaning of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act. That finding rendered the appellant unable to claim a preferential share of Yuan’s $21 million estate. Yuan was killed in 2015. He died intestate. Yuan had five children from relationships with five different women, including the appellant. He did not marry any of the women. The appellant did not know of the existence of the other four women until after Yuan’s death. Throughout, Yuan also maintained an online dating profile. The appellant first interacted with Yuan in 2004 when she was 16. She resided at his parents’ home in China. Yuan at times also lived at his parents’ home but purchased an apartment in Beijing in 2007 and spent substantial time at that apartment without the appellant. There was no evidence of sexual intimacy between the appellant and Yuan for years before his death. The judge found that Yuan had no intention to live in a marriage‑like relationship with the appellant. After September 2014, Yuan was no longer in China. He was in Canada and the U.S. The appellant remained in China. The judge concluded that the appellant and Yuan never lived in a marriage‑like relationship. Alternatively, he found that if a marriage‑like relationship existed, it was terminated in 2011 or by 2014 at the latest....