Canadian Lawyer

46 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m J ustin Hunt still remembers the horror of the October day in 2011 when he realized his father was missing. Just three days had passed since Kevin Hunt's release from hos- pital, following a four-month stint as an inpatient recovering from a horrific ATV crash that left the 50-year-old comatose for 18 days and suffering permanent and catastrophic brain injuries. Worse, only Justin and his brother had been trained to deal with the spe- cific and extensive care needs of their father, who had also disappeared with- out his medication. "We were really concerned about his safety," Hunt says. As well as taking responsibility for their father's care while he waited for an expected $1-million personal injury settlement, the brothers had also taken a more active role in the successful landscaping business he founded. But nothing could prepare them for the news they got when their dad was finally tracked down to a Collingwood, Ont. hotel later that day, with the help of credit card records and the local police. In the few hours he was gone, the elder Hunt had been married to Kathleen Worrod, the former on-off girlfriend he had split from before the crash. "When we found out where he was and what had happened, it was a huge shock; just devastating," Justin Hunt says. The case is a classic one of predatory mar- riage, according to Kimberley Whaley, whose firm WEL Partners acted for the Hunts in the subsequent litigation that ultimately resulted in Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Koke declaring the marriage void ab initio in his recent decision in Hunt v. Worrod. Although the phenomenon is more often associated with financial exploitation of an elderly person, often by a caregiver, family friend or neighbour, Whaley says, vulnerable people of all ages are at risk. In many cases, she says, the extent of finan- cial abuse by a spouse or even the fact of the marriage only becomes clear after a person's death when expected inheritances fail to mate- rialize for family members and beneficiaries left behind. Statistics on predatory marriage are hard to come by, but Dagmara Wozniak, an estate litigator with London, Ont. firm Siskinds LLP, Estate planning can be quickly undone when a vulnerable person is married By Michael McKiernan PREDATORY MARRIAGES W I L L S , T R U S T S & E S T A T E S L E G A L R E P O R T FAYE ROGERS

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