|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Document
|
|
PO-1717
|
|
|
|
|
|
File #
|
|
PA-990029-1
|
|
|
|
|
|
Institution/HIC
|
|
Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
|
|
BACKGROUND: The Estates and Corporations Unit of the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee deals with the estates of individuals who, while residents of Ontario, die testate or intestate without next-of-kin able or willing to administer their estates. The Public Guardian and Trustee becomes the court-appointed estate trustee and searches for beneficiaries or next-of-kin who could be heirs entitled to all or part of the assets of the estate. If lawful heirs cannot be found, the estate escheats to the Crown. Although no further interest is paid on the liquidated assets after the deceased has been dead for ten years, an individual can prove entitlement at any time and receive his or her lawful share. Certain individuals and organizations are in the business of identifying and locating heirs of estates that have not been claimed or have escheated to the Crown (heir tracers). They do so, in part, by seeking information held by the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (the PGT). NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The PGT received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) from an heir tracer who wanted access to a record which would substantiate whether the estate of a named individual who died on or about February 1, 1976 remained solvent or had already been paid out to the heirs. The PGT identified a one-page computer printout as the only responsive record. Entries on this printout relate to the administration of the funds of this estate, and indicate whether or not heirs have been paid. Access to the records was denied pursuant to section 21(1) of the Act . The requester (now the appellant) appealed the PGT's decision. In his letter of appeal he states: Please note that I have enclosed a copy of a "Status Letter" ... that contains the same [type of ] information that we presently seek. Such letters are provided to us to a limit of three per month, as we have been advised by [a named employee of the PGT] that this is the maximum number of requests that she can handle given her daily workload. Because the volume of our requests exceeds this level [the named employee] suggested that we pursue any additional requests under the (FOI) Act. We have complied with this suggestion and quite frankly are surprised at the refusal of [the PGT] to respond to our requests. Please also note that some time ago we purchased a list of escheated estates, that we were able to obtain as a result of [the Commissioner's Office]'s help. We began working on a number of these files and found that although all of them had escheated, many of them had already been claimed. By working on files that had already been claimed we wasted a significant amount of our time and money, as well as the time and resources of various offices of the [Ministry of the Attorney General]. In addition, a number of other Ministry Offices that we deal with also expended their scarce resources in their efforts to assist us with cases that had already been claimed. We wish to avoid duplication of everyone's efforts and to help the beneficiaries of these escheated assets recover what is rightfully payable to them. During mediation, the appellant clarified that he is not seeking any financial information about the estate, and only wants to know whether the estate has been claimed, is in the process of being claimed, or remains unclaimed. Consequently, the portion of the record containing details of the financial value of the estate was removed from the scope of the appeal. In addition to the name and Social Insurance Number of the deceased individual, the printout contains transaction entries which reflect activity on the file over the course of administering her estate. One transaction entry contains information which would confirm whether or not the estate is solvent. No financial details contained in the record are at issue in this appeal. During mediation, the appellant claimed that there is a compelling public interest in disclosure of the record under section 23 of the Act . Mediation was not successful, and I sent a Notice of Inquiry to the appellant and the PGT. Both parties submitted representations in response to the Notice. DISCUSSION: PERSONAL INFORMATION Under section 2(1) of the Act , "personal information" is defined, in part, to mean recorded information about an identifiable individual. Section 2(2) provides that: Personal information does not include information about an individual who has been dead for more than thirty years. The deceased individual in this case died in 1976, which is less than thirty years ago. The appellant submits that the "information regarding the estate of an individual is not information about the individual per se but is information relating to the estate of the individual which in a sense is an abstract entity unto itself". The record at issue in this appeal contains information which confirms whether the named individual's estate has been claimed by heirs and is or is not solvent. In my view, this is information "about" the deceased person, and qualifies as her personal information. Because she has been dead for less than 30 years, section 2(2) makes it clear that the information is still considered her personal information for the purposes of the Act . PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE Section 66(a) of the Act provides: Any right or power conferred on an individual by this Act may be exercised, where the individual is deceased, by the individual's personal representative if exercise of the right or power relates to the administration of the individual's estate; As stated earlier, the PGT acts as the court-appointed estate trustee in certain circumstances following the death of a resident of Ontario. The PGT has been appointed the estate trustee for the estate of the deceased person named in the appellant's request. As such, the Public Guardian and Trustee is the "per
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legislation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subject Index
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Signed by
|
|
Tom Mitchinson
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published
|
|
Sep 24, 1999
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type
|
|
Order
|
|
|
|
|
|
<<
Back
|
|
|
|
Back to Top
|
 |
|
|
|
© Copyright
2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
|