There is a growing number of cases where the court imposes a ‘constructive trust’ upon the proceeds of a life insurance policy. In Brown v. Laurie,(2019) 145 O.R.(3d) 154, the Laurie widow asked the court to stop the payout of life insurance proceeds to the named beneficiary Brown. Brown was the deceased’s business partner.
The Motion judge (MacArthur) explained that the wife’s evidence, being her own verbal recollection of what her husband told her, was not good enough or reliable enough to overcome the fact that Brown (and not the wife) was the named beneficiary. The wife’s words were ‘hearsay’.
In responding to the wife the judge said: the law is not concerned with ‘subjective’ intentions, but only manifest intentions as revealed objectively by their actions.
The Court of Appeal agreed.
