Law Times

PAGE 8 FOCUS ON Family Law/Trusts & Estates Man battling family over parentage, estate fighting on George Dryden launches claims over inheritance, says former PM is his father BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times A Toronto man who claims his nat- ural father is former prime min- ister John Diefenbaker is vow- ing to continue his fight against his parents for allegedly freezing him out of his inheritance. In a $30-million claim for damages, George Dryden sued his parents, Gordon and Mary Louise Dryden. He accuses both of hiding the identity of his natural father and alleges that Gordon led a cam- paign of mistreatment and disinheritance against him based on his knowledge that he wasn't his real father. George's brother Barrie Dryden Jr. is also a defendant in the suit. But in a Nov. 30 judgment, Superior Court Justice Beth Allen struck virtually the entire claim as disclosing no reason- able cause of action. Only a single claim of defamation against Gordon remains. George's lawyer Stephen Edell says his client was disappointed with the result and wants his claims to get a full hearing at trial. "He felt that he had a fair hearing but he didn't feel that the judge properly grasped or dealt with the issues, and it has been appealed," says Edell. "And he's very con- fident that the Court of Appeal will see things differently." In a parallel pursuit, George received another setback in his quest to firmly link his parentage to Canada's 13th prime minister. In January, DNA results came back inconclusive after he convinced the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in Saskatoon to let him test 10 samples retrieved from objects that included Diefenbaker's hat, pipe, and watch strap. Nine of the samples were unusable and the 10th came back inconclusive because it contained DNA from more than one source. "He was very disappointed with the samples that they provided for testing," says Edell. "They wouldn't allow the expert who went out there to pick his own sam- ples that he thought may have been more suitable. To get 10 samples, nine of which had no DNA on them whatsoever and the other which was essentially compromised, DNA results from samples obtained from the Diefenbaker Canada Centre were inconclusive in determining George Dryden's parentage. was very unfortunate." Edell says his client still holds out hope of getting a better sample from the centre but in the meantime has turned his attention to tracking down Diefenbaker relations. "It's not that easy because he didn't have any known direct children, so he's looking for cousins and second cousins with a view towards getting them to participate in a type of testing where they look for histori- cal links in terms of the genetic markers to determine if there's a similarity," says Edell. "That takes some time because not only do you have to track these people down but then you have to convince them that they should co-operate and get tested." Diefenbaker relatives in Kitchener, Ont., have already rebuffed George's approaches, but Edell says a small breakthrough in that area could quickly snowball. "If he can get a positive result, hopefully he can go to people who may have been reluctant in the first place and show them that there is a connection and hopefully then they'll reconsider." Mary Louise moved in Progressive Conservative party circles before her mar- riage to Gordon, a lawyer and former trea- surer of the Liberal Party of Canada. George alleged in his lawsuit that he only discovered Gordon wasn't his real father through discussions with family members in 2010. DNA tests have since ruled him out as his biological father. The family dispute has its roots in the wills of Mary Louise's brother, John Lonergan, and another relative. George benefited from neither but disputed them in a 2004 action that alleged Lonergan had sexually abused him. The action, including the sexual assault allegation, ended with a 2005 settlement that saw George receive $75,000. George launched his new action in 2010. He alleges his father was respon- sible for his disinheritance and that Gordon had taken advantage of his wife's ill health to get appointed the sole executor of the Lonergan estate. According to the now-struck claim, George accused his mother of concealing the identity of his real father and signing a false birth certificate to keep the name a secret. Allen separated the claims into fami- ly-based and monetary-based ones in her analysis. On the family side, she found George's mother had correctly filled out his birth certificate according to the statutes in force at the time and that there was no independent cause of action for parents concealing a child's parentage. "There is no duty on parents to dis- close the identity of a child's natural par- ents and correspondingly the child does not have a legal right to know the identity of their natural parents," Allen wrote. Allen also found George's claims of alienation against his parents couldn't stand and that the facts pleaded to sup- port his conspiracy allegation were "far too imprecise." On the monetary side, Allen struck out George's claims of injurious false- hood, fraud, and intentional interference in economic relations against his father. She found that none of the causes of action could be made out. Instead, she wrote that the proper procedure for challenging the settlement would be to bring a motion in the origi- nal proceeding to have the order approv- ing the deal set aside. "Even had he used the proper proceed- ing to obtain the relief he seeks, he would not likely succeed," Allen wrote. "He would have to establish fraud in relation to how the judgment was obtained and in the case of newly discovered facts, that the new facts would have changed the result and that the new facts could not have been discovered before trial with due diligence." The judge also ordered George to pay a total of $40,000 for the costs of the motion with $15,000 going to the public guardian and trustee that represents Mary Louise, $10,000 to Barrie, and $15,000 to Gordon. The single claim allowed to stand, for defamation, stemmed from George's alle- gation that his father had "defamed and injured him with falsehoods, all with mal- ice and an intent to harm," by allegedly alienating his mother's affection, concealing his parentage, and assuring his disinheri- tance. None of the allegations have been proven in court. "If those facts are accepted as true, and given a liberal reading, they provide the basis for a claim in defamation," Allen wrote. LT February 13, 2012 • Law Times Heydary_LT_Feb13_12.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-02-09 11:04 AM

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