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Elizabeth Lockhart is a partner in Gowlings' Ottawa office, practising in the Business Law Group.
Elizabeth's practice concentrates on estate planning and estate capacity litigation. She represents beneficiaries, intestate heirs, support claimants as well as guardians and attorneys under powers of attorney in various litigation matters including Application to Interpret Wills, Will Contests, Claims under the Succession Law Reform Act and trustee/attorney/guardian disputes.
Mladen Estate v. McGuire, 2007 CanLII 10904 (ON SC). This case was an application by an estate trustee to determine the heirs to an estate. The issue was whether a lapsed residuary gift passes upon intestacy to the next of kin or goes to the surviving residuary beneficiaries. The generally accepted law in Ontario up until that point was that such a gift passed on intestacy to next of kin. The court queried whether in determining an intention in the Will that is contrary to the general rule in case law, it was entitled to sit in the “testator’s armchair” and consider such surrounding circumstances including the testatrix’s knowledge about and relationship with her family. The court held that it would take a principled approach and would determine the true intention of the testator in light of all the surrounding circumstances. The lapsed residuary gift went to the two surviving beneficiaries.
Poole v Poole 2008 CarswellOnt 4103 (SCJ). This case provided interpretation of the [then] fairly newly enacted Declarations of Death Act which requires an applicant to establish that the missing person disappeared in “circumstances of peril” in order to have someone declared dead. The court concluded that “circumstance of peril” includes suicidality.
- Hosted the local Ontario Bar Association, Trusts and Estates Section's monthly lunch series for four years.
- Spoken at a variety of continuing legal education seminars and programs including the OBA Professional Development - Trusts and Laws Estates Series in Ottawa - and the County of Carleton Law Association Montebello Solicitors Conference.
- Member of teaching staff on the law clerk program at Algonquin College.
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