Does the doctrine of relation back apply to a contract made by a person before he is appointed administrator?
Saskatchewan, Canada
The following excerpt is from Nichol v. Pettycrew, 1969 CanLII 555 (SK QB):
Wetmore, J. in Larry v. Baker, supra, at p. 148, appears to express an opinion that” a contract made by a person before he is appointed administrator may be unilateral, that is, it may be enforced by one party to it for the benefit of the estate after he takes out administration but that it cannot be enforced by the other party to it as against the estate. He concluded so because he was unable to find any case in which the doctrine of relation back had been enforced against the estate. Here I must point out with respect that the test should be not whether the litigation is in the interest of the estate but whether the contract was at the time it was entered into in the interest of the estate. It could not be in the interest of an estate to lose a law suit and the test so applied would be most unjust.
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