How the BC court dealt with legal and moral obligations of a parent

We hear a lot about contesting wills these days, especially in cases where parents leave more of the estate to one child than to the others. This is of particular interest in British Columbia, where their law allows adult children to challenge a parent's will on moral grounds.

I recently read an article by Mark Slay that gives the best explanation I've seen as to how the court deals with the legal and moral obligations of the parent when the will is contested. Mr. Slay's article, discusses the case of McBride v. Voth. In that case, a daughter who had lived with her parents all her life and who had provided care and companionship to them was left a greater share of the parents' estate. The other siblings didn't like that, and contested the will.In the end, the court changed the parents' will, but not completely. The stay-at-home daughter still got a larger share of the estate, but not quite what the parents had stated.

Click here to read Mr. Slays article, and his brief analysis of why the court made this decision. Click here if you want to read the whole case.