The Friends of Jo and Mal have made this website to support their struggles with a shoddy legal system that threatens to take their home.
In July of 1996 their friend Kathryn died. Rest in Peace Kathryn and may you never know how inept lawyers have turned your generous gift into such grief. You see Kathryn, remember Stephen Kelly? The executor you chose to make sure everything goes well? Well over a year after your death, Stephen and his lawyer Myles McLellan, of McLellan & Assoc., gave Josephine Hughes and Maralyn Garbutt (the lovely lesbian couple that have been together 18 years at the time of your passing) your gift. Each got a cheque for 75,000.
Now a year after that, in May of 1998, Stephen and Myles finally start calculating the taxes owing on the estate. J.K. Financial is hired to do the paperwork.
In September 1998, your executor Stephen finally paid the Receiver General a little over six grand on behalf of the estate.
Now comes November 1998 when the Government tell Stephen Kelly that the estate owes $100,918.07 in back taxes. But Stephen and his lawyer gave it all away. So they ask for it back.
In the meantime; Our heros Mal and Jo have put their money into their timeshare in Curacao. They'll be retiring soon and the three weeks in winter at their favorite island is perfect for them. Except that their timeshare went bankrupt. They lost their entire investment.
So they have no winfall to give back. Even if they should. Which they shouldn't have to because They Did Nothing Wrong!
So Kathyrn, when they refuse to pay back money they didn't have and shouldn't have to, they were taken to court by the Estate Trustee, paid for by the Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company, Michelle L.M. Strom President.
In November of 2000, the Estate Trustee's in court with their $40,000 lawyer and Jo & Mal are their with their $2,000 lawyer and the judge says Jo and Mal must pay! Honest to the big guy beside you, Kathyrn! Judge Haley not only orders Jo and Mal to repay $35,250 each but makes them pay part of LawPro's $40,000 lawyer fees!
Kathyrn, now as you enjoy your long peaceful relationship with God you know that there is justice in some cosmic scale that we don't get to see or understand. But down here on earth, what passes for justice just makes us want to puke.
Jo and Mal fired their lawyer and hire Keith Lee-Whiting. He advised them not to appeal Judge Haley's order but go for the passing of acounts instead.
In November 2003 Revenue Canada rules that Stephen Kelly, as Executor of the Estate, is solely responsible for the taxes owing on the estate because he did not receive a Certificate of Clearance before paying the beneficiaries. Two months later the Estate Trustee files a writ of seizure and sale against the property of Jo and Mal for the $64,500 they were ordered to pay back plus interest at 7% from Nov. 2000.
I know this is a lot to figure out for someone to whom problems of the world are behind them, but to those loved ones left behind these nitty picky things mean the difference between justice and injustice, guilty or not guilty, owning or renting.
So in March of 2004 Jo and Mal attemp mediation with Stephen Kelly and Myles McLellan but Stephen's lawyer William E.C. Parker and Myles' lawyer Michael Kestenberg refused to let Steve-O and Myles admit to any responsibility.
So it looks as though a precedent is being set. The executor and estate lawyer are no longer responsible for the taxes being paid on an estate. Now, the taxes on an estate are now the liability of the beneficiaries who have no control over the estate nor could possibly know what taxes are owning. So if you've ever received a dying gift the executor of the will can hunt you down years later and demand it back, with lawyer fees and interest included!
Luckily, dear Kathyrn, you are no longer concerned with these earthly things, or you'd be rolling.