August 15, 2023 – Gifts

“The term “gift” is not defined in the Act. In McNamee v. McNamee, 2011 ONCA 533 (CanLII), 106 O.R. (3d) 401, this court set out the elements of a gift in the following way, at para. 24:

The essential ingredients of a legally valid gift are not in dispute. There must be (1) an intention to make a gift on the part of the donor, without consideration or expectation of remuneration, (2) an acceptance of the gift by the done, and (3) a sufficient act of delivery or transfer of the property to complete the transaction: Cochrane v. Moore, (1890), 25 Q.B.D. 57 (C.A.), at pp. 72-73 Q.B.D.; Mossman and Flanagan, supra, at p. 441, Bruce Ziff, Principles of Property Law, 5th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2010), at p. 157.

In Peter v. Beblow, 1993 CanLII 126 (SCC), [1993] 1 S.C.R. 980, at pp. 991-92, McLachlin J. referred to giving without expectation of remuneration as the “central element of a gift at law”.”

         Buttar v. Buttar, 2013 ONCA 517 (CanLII) at 28-29