MacLean Law “Book of Biz” Appeal Decision Applied in BC Supreme Court
The recent BC Family Law Court of Appeal decision in Lightle v Kotar 2014 BCCA 69 ( in which we acted for the successful Appellant) has been applied in a new BC Supreme Court family law case: SRM V NGTM 2014 BCSC 442, from paragraphs 161-206.
Lorne MacLean, Q.C. correctly predicted the decision would be applied to all categories of book of business. Books of Business have significant value. Contact Lorne MacLean, Q.C. now.
The question in SRM was whether the Husband’s right to participate in his company’s “Business Succession Plan” was a Family Asset subject to division. The Business Succession Plan in the Husband’s company involved a retiring employee – such as the Husband in this case, many years in the future when he would retire – to possibly receive a series of payments “buying out” his Assets Under Management (“AUM”). The AUM is, in essence … a Book of Business.Mr. Justice Butler applied the carefully-reasoned analysis of Mr. Justice Willcock of the BC Court of Appeal in Lightle, and held that:1) The Husband’s book of business, or right to participate in the Business Succession Plan, can be considered a family asset.
2) There is no reason in this case for the book of business to not be considered a family asset.
3) The value of the family asset – the Husband’s right to receive payments under the Business Succession Plan – will be valued with a set of assumptions ordered by the Court.
The full case – including the Judge’s reasons for finding that the Husband did not have sex with the family dog – can be found here.
If you have a novel BC family property law case, it makes sense to hire one of our highly experienced family lawyers who work out of our 4 BC office locations in Vancouver, Surrey, Kelowna and Fort St John BC.
