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ARTICLE · 10 FEBRUARY 2017

Children Are Children, Right?

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An interesting Will interpretation question arose in Matras Estate, 2016 ABQB 728 regarding the meaning of the word "children".

CanadaFamily and Matrimonial
Codie L. Chisholm
Codie L. Chisholm
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An interesting Will interpretation question arose in Matras Estate, 2016 ABQB 728 regarding the meaning of the word "children". It mattered because the testator's Will left her personal effects and the residue of her estate to "my children", and she had biological children, legally adopted children and a foster child who had been with the family since infancy but was not legally adopted.

The Will included the following provision about children: "For the purposes of this Will, a child or children of a person named in this Will shall mean the biological and legally adopted children of such person."

Was this definition intended to define who counted as children of the testator (i.e., the foster child was not included)? Or, was it intended to define who was a child of persons otherwise named in the Will, not the testator? 

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