Can a Gift be Revoked Due to Ingratitude?
In the latest edition of CCH Will Power (November 2007, No. 155) a Court of Quebec decision in Molnar v. Kovacs was discussed, where a gift was compelled to be returned due to ingratitude.
The mother in this case owned a house and subsequently bought a mobile home with monies loaned to her, guaranteed by a mortgage on her house. Pursuant to the mortgage agreement, the mother was liable for the loan even if the ownership of the house was subsequently transferred. The mother moved into the mobile home, and her son and his girlfriend began living in the house, paying rent to the mother of $400/month (which amount covered the mortgage payments).
The mother later agreed to give the house to her son, evidenced by a signed deed of donation. The mother then moved back into the house, living there for a time with her son and his girlfriend. The son continued to make the $400 monthly payments to the mother.
Relations between the mother and her son deteriorated, and the mother moved back into her mobile home. The son stopped making the monthly payments to the mother, and the mother ultimately commenced proceedings against her son to get her house back, based on her son’s ingratitude (pursuant to a provision of the Quebec Civil Code (art. 1836)).
The Court held that by stopping the monthly payments the son demonstrated “seriously reprehensible” behaviour towards his mother (particularly given her age, modest income and ongoing obligations to meet her mortgage payments), ordered that he return the house to his mother and declared that the mother was the owner of the house retroactively to the date of the donation of the house.
Have a good day,
Natalia Angelini
