There was a rich businessman here in Toronto, a widower with three kids, all of whom he had already made arrangements to provide for so most of his estate was going to go to charity. He was getting on in years and found companionship with an older lady.

Naturally, as people do when they get older, he became increasingly unable to handle his own affairs. However, he had thought ahead and had already created a committee of three other men, all titans of industry, to manage his affairs if that happened.

So when it did, our rich man’s lady friend found that they were essentially putting her on a generous allowance rather than allowing her to buy whatever she wanted.

So she came to us to go to court and install her as the rich man’s substitute decision maker. Now, please note that this would not have been a problem had they been married, and they were on the verge of doing so, but one of the rich man’s friends reminded him before the ceremony that if he did get married, his carefully laid out estate plan would be thrown into absolute chaos which would most likely attract massive tax consequences, so he backed out.

Here’s the thing - we took on the case thinking we would get a big payout. There was a massive amount of money involved.

But problems presented themselves immediately. First, if a person chooses a substitute decision maker, the court is unlikely to replace them unless they’re doing something self-serving. Like I said, these three guys were all of the highest reputation and they had all known the rich guy for decades. They were doing a first rate job and were working well together.

However, our client had a series of old fraud convictions. Also, she stood to massively benefit if she was appointed.

It took virtually no time for the court to reject our application entirely. Her previous fraud convictions were the nail in the proverbial coffin.

The rich guy eventually passed and she worked out a settlement with the estate for ongoing support, which she was entitled to. The amount she received was about three times what I made in a year.

And we never did get paid.