Stonewalling the Orphans
RBC purchased the Royal Trust in 1993, but the bank's subsidiary has continued to fight all actions brought forward by the orphans. Not knowing the details of what happened to their father's companies, Jeffrey Barkin, one of the Winter orphans approached Royal Trust to learn more. Instead of assistance, the Royal Trust was uncooperative in providing access to his late parents' records. He was forced to take legal action against Royal Trust to review the estates' files.
While his case was before the court, an unexecuted copy of the purchase agreement was discovered in the records of lawyer David A. Ward Q.C. In 2002, Jeffrey's legal action against the Royal Trust was successful, and Ontario Superior Court Judge Romain Pitt ordered Royal Trust to provide access to all of the estate records to the children. However, the materials that were finally handed over, appeared to have been vetted and it further appeared documents were missing. Signed copies of the executed purchase agreement were not provided following the Pitt order. It was not until the after the children filed their action against Royal Trust did they receive a fully executed copy of the purchase agreement with the two separate related option and royalty agreements.
"Royal Trust has fought us every step of the way; first, by failing to cooperate in permitting us to review our family's estate documents, then by opposing our application for an order requiring production of the documents," explains Jeffrey Barkin.
"It started with some simple questions for the Royal Trust, who we thought would be cooperative in helping us, although it didn't turn out that way. We pulled on a string and everything started to unravel. I would never have guessed that things would turn out the way they did resulting in us having to pursue legal action against Royal Trust, Barry Sherman and Apotex."