In the course of administering an estate, it is necessary to determine whether there is any surviving spouse or common-law partner (referred to in Alberta as an “adult interdependent partner,” or AIP) of the deceased. This determination may be straightforward, in cases where the deceased was legally married or had entered into an adult interdependent partner agreement pursuant to section 7 of the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act, or where there is no dispute that the deceased had lived with another person in a relationship of interdependence for a continuous period of not less than three years, or in an interdependent relationship of some permanence, if there is a child of the relationship by birth or adoption. However, where the facts are unclear or in dispute, a person who claims to be an AIP of the deceased but who had no AIP agreement and no children with the deceased has the onus of proving that the deceased lived in a relationship of interdependence with the person for at least three continuous years. A recent decision of Justice M.R. Gaston of the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, Abbott v. Mamdani, provides an excellent summary of the case law interpreting the first element of this test—the requirement that the parties “lived together.”
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