debt

The deceased had gone through the form of a marriage in Las Vegas while he had not yet completed his divorce with his first wife, and he soon had the Vegas marriage annulled. The estate of the deceased paid out a $45,000 to his "wife" from Vegas in satisfaction of her claim for maintenance and damages. Anderson J. found that the $45,000 was not a "debt" because (i) it was not a "sum payable in respect of a liquidated money demand recoverable by action" (p.

At the time of death of the deceased, a director of his family business corporation, he was under investigation by the Department of National Revenue for having misappropriated sums from the company (namely, proceeds of sales made by the company to customers). Three years later, the Department determined that the misappropriated sums amounted to $183,507.99. The matter was settled on the basis that the corporation would be assessed to include this sums in its income, and the estate would not be assessed for a shareholder benefit provided that it repaid this sum to the corporation.

After the plaintiff discovered that his sale of a threshing machine to the defendant was legally ineffective, he received an award at trial for the estimated value of the defendant's use of the machine until it was returned to him, namely, $60, being $10 for each day the machine was used. He appealed on the matter of costs - either his claim sounded in damages, or he was restricted to costs determined by the "small debt scale."

The Court found that the plaintiff's claim sounded in damages. Lamont J.A. stated (at DLR p. 95):