On June 14, 2016 the Ontario Superior Court allowed an action commenced by the estate of a deceased lottery winner to continue against her former investment advisors. Nancy Wagg had won $1.026 million in the lottery in 1995, and was an unsophisticated investor with little formal education. At the urging of her son-in-law, she invested roughly $800,000 in a speculative penny stock, which did not meet her KYC objectives. Her son-in-law was also a director and shareholder in the company. Following her death, Nancy's daughter (and wife to the investment advisor) became estate trustee under her will. The investment was ultimately determined to be worthless, and a substitute estate trustee was later put in place.
The estate trustee commenced an action with respect to the losses suffered, but not untilmore than two years after Nancy's death. On the defendants' motion, Justice Newbould held that the action on its facewas statute barred under the Trustee Act, yet declined to dismiss the action. The plaintiff provided sufficient evidence to conclude that whether the defendants engaged in a fraudulent concealment of the wrongdoing, so as to toll the limitation period, required a trial.
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