July 30, 2026
George Santayana’s famous bon mot “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is part of a longer passage that is particularly relevant to President Donald Trump’s bizarre conclusion that bad forestry practices in Manitoba should be met with a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S., to be paid primarily by American importers and consumers.
July 30, 2026
In 2009, a mother transfers $150,000 to her eldest son so he can close on his first house. Nothing is signed. She mentions to a neighbour that he will pay her back “when he is on his feet.” She tells the son it is “his share, early.” Meanwhile, her daughter gives up an apartment and a job in another city, moves into the family home and spends 11 years caring for her mother, on the strength of an assurance repeated over many Sunday dinners: the house will be yours. The mother dies in 2024. Her will divides the estate equally among her three children.
July 28, 2026
Choosing an executor is one of the most consequential decisions in estate planning. An executor is a fiduciary required to act honestly, impartially, and in the best interests of the estate over their own. Where an executor’s personal obligations, financial interests, or relationships conflict with these duties, these conflicts of interest can lead to family disputes, high legal costs, and can jeopardize proper estate administration.
July 27, 2026
The British Columbia Court of Appeal has awarded special costs to a respondent strata company in a case where there was unnecessary delay and egregious conduct relating to litigation for a lien on a unit.
July 27, 2026
Robins Appleby LLP has added Julia Sugden as an associate in its commercial real estate and development group in Toronto.
July 24, 2026
The Supreme Court has ruled that several submerged plots in Quebec’s Laurentians region were sold with the adjoining riparian lands — while also outlining a test on how to interpret a provision in the province’s Civil Code that says a seller must deliver a property with “all its accessories.” The conflict the court was weighing in on traces its origins to 1881, when the construction of a dam raised the level of Lac Masson, north of Montreal. A strip of land between the lake and the shore was then flooded and became submerged.
July 24, 2026
Appeal by appellant from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal which set aside a judgment of the Superior Court. Years ago, the respondents or their predecessors in title each purchased from the appellant a lot bounded by a large navigable lake.
July 24, 2026
This is the scenario: John and Jane each purchase a real property in Ontario in 2003, to which they take title in their names alone. John purchases a residential property for $2,000,000 (“John’s property”) and Jane purchases a cottage property for $1,000,000 (“Jane’s property”). In 2006, John and Jane become common law spouses and go back and forth between living at their respective properties — typically John’s during the fall and winter months and Jane’s during the spring and summer months. John and Jane never enter into any domestic agreement. Both were previously married and have children from prior marriages, who are their primary beneficiaries and not each other.
July 24, 2026
The law governing residential tenancies under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17 (RTA), has evolved significantly since its enactment. A recent landmark decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal has fundamentally reshaped how risk is allocated in residential tenancy litigation in Ontario.
July 22, 2026
Thomas J. Moran is a new partner at DLA Piper, based in the firm's Vancouver office.