Can a husband make a gift to his wife of one half of the damages received by him as a result of a motor vehicle accident settlement?

The case of Witzel v. Witzel, [2004] O.J. No. 498 dealt with an investment account in the joint names of the parties into which damages received by the husband arising out of a motor vehicle accident had been deposited. It was held that the presumption in section 14 (a) of the Family Law Act that money held in a joint account was the joint and equal property of both spouses had been rebutted by the husband based on his testimony that he never intended to make a gift to his wife of one half of the damages from the motor vehicle accident settlement.

In Lehner v. Grundl, [1995] O.J. No. 181, one common-law spouse transferred title to real property from his name alone into the joint names of he and his common-law spouse. The trial judge found as a fact that the transferring spouse did not understand what he was doing when he transferred the property and accordingly the presumption of resulting trust had not been rebutted.