Since this is “bring your cat to the office day”, I had an interesting situation to bring to your attention.
An elderly woman passed away and she loved her cat as if she were her child. In fact, she was never married and never had children. So, she wrote a Will leaving her house to her cat.
Ordinarily, you would think that she was crazy and her Will would be thrown out by the Courts. However, my role was to argue in favour of the “Cat Will”, which I did in the Supreme Court of Ontario (Ontario Superior Court today).
Her Will allowed someone to live in her house “rent free” as long as her cat was alive. After that, the proceeds of the sale were to be distributed equally among four charities, being three hospitals and the Humane Society.
Her extended family argued that she was incapable of making a Will. I argued to the contrary, namely that Cat Wills are fine, she was sane, and there was nothing unusual here. Now, her Executor was her own lawyer and he was the one living in the house. I didn’t oppose that, otherwise my clients (the three hospitals) would have received absolutely nothing.
Also, I convinced the Judge to order that the cat be tattooed for identification purposes Seven years later, the cat died and the estate was divided up between Toronto General, Sick Kids, St. Mikes and the Humane Society. Everyone was happy, including the lawyer who lived in the house for seven years for free. Naturally, all with the support of the charities otherwise they would have received nothing.
So, go ahead and leave your house to your cat!
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker