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Reported CasesAreas of Law considered in this case: - Variation of Life Insurance - Trusts - Estates - Children's' Claims - Civil Litigation - Protection of Children's' Interests - Parens Patriae Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Ontario - Trustee Act - Variation of Trusts Act - Succession Law Reform Act - Children's Law Reform Act - Surrogate Courts Act - Judicature Act Sloan v. Sloan, [1989] O.J. No. 682 The young widow was separated from her husband, when he died in a single car accident early one Sunday morning. The young widow was living with the son-in-law of her husband's parents at the time her husband died. I remember the young widow telling me that she and Stewart became friends as they would often talk at the family weekend parties held at the grandparents' cottage, since they were often the only two not drinking heavily by the end of the evening. I remember seeing the police pictures taken at the scene of the accident. How graphic and tragic this young man's death was! The widow's husband had left the proceeds of his life insurance policy to his two young children. The husband's father was named the sole trustee of the life insurance proceeds, which the law characterized as trust funds. I brought an urgent interim court application before Mr. Justice Reid the first winter after the husband's death. The young widow had been forced to send her eldest son, Daniel, to school in a snowstorm, in his running shoes that had holes in them. The grandfather had refused to give the young widow any money to pay for necessities for the children, despite many requests. Mr. Justice Reid ordered an interim support payment immediately and monthly thereafter, based on the amount of income that the investments the grandfather had made were generating. This was within his discretion as Judge to award, but very rarely done, especially on an interim application { as Madam Justice Van Camp noted in her reasons for judgment in the main application }. I had appeared many times before Mr. Justice Reid since he often sat in Divisional Court, on statutory appeals and judicial reviews and I was often in Divisional Court as Counsel for the Attorney General on statutory appeals and judicial reviews. Mr. Justice Reid almost always understood my client's position from the written argument or factum that was required. My client usually prevailed. I had never had occasion to have Mr. Justice Reid raise his voice or show any annoyance with me as counsel. However the day that Mr. Justice Reid granted the interim order setting the young widow's allowance for the two young children Mr. Justice Reid was really exasperated, and all of the other counsel sitting in court waiting to be heard on other cases knew that. Mr. Justice Reid wanted to fully determine all of the issues raised in the application at one time so that justice could be done. So he raised his voice in exasperation and told me that although he recognized that this was an emergency application, he wished that I had filed a factum, in order to give him the jurisdiction [or power] he needed under the legislation in question, and the Rules of Civil Procedure, to make a final disposition of all of the issues in the matter. From that day forward, unless the client instructs to the contrary, I have never appeared in a court matter that ultimately required a factum without one. On a happier note, the problems that Madam Justice Van Camp noted in her decision that the eldest child was having were soon resolved. The eldest child went to see a " talking doctor" as he called his child psychiatrist, and played some games and did some puzzles. His grades in school improved. The young widow and Stewart were eventually married. Stewart adopted the children. The blended family was getting along well. The wisdom of Mr. Justice Reid in establishing the interim allowance, and the wisdom of Madam Justice Van Camp removal of the grandfather as trustee, leaving the funds in court until the children each reach the age of majority; and appointing the Official Guardian as trustee instead of the grandfather; provided available funding to send both of the children to college or university, or establish them in careers of their own. From the senseless tragedy that was the father's death that early morning on the highway, his children now have the assurance that they can pursue higher education, or career interests, since the wisdom of counsel and the judges involved in this case salvaged all the benefit the legal process could provide to these children.
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OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Linda Kolyn, LL.B. 
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