Ontario Court Finds Common-Law Partner Entitled to Death Benefits
September 01, 2026
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has found that a long-standing partner was a common-law spouse for pension purposes after a challenge from siblings of a deceased plan member.
The case arose following the death of a retired teacher who died intestate. Under the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) (“PBA”) death benefits were payable either to the plan member’s surviving married or common-law spouse or, if there was no spouse, to his estate.
The applicants, who were siblings of the plan member, argued that the survivor benefits should be distributed to the estate, maintaining that the respondent was not his common-law spouse. The applicants asserted that the PBA required a formal designation of a common-law spouse as the beneficiary of the death benefit. The respondent maintained that she had been in a romantic relationship with for the plan member for more than 30 years before his death, and that she was his common-law spouse under the PBA.
After reviewing the evidence, the Court found that the parties had lived together in a long-term common-law relationship and concluded that the respondent was the deceased's common-law spouse at the time of his death. As a result, she was entitled to receive the death benefit. The Court rejected the applicant’s assertion that Section 48 of the PBA requires a formal designation of a common-law spouse.
Accordingly, the Court held that the lack of a formal designation of the respondent as the beneficiary of the death benefit was not a bar to her entitlement to the death benefit as a common-law spouse.
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