(REAL PROPERTY) Peter Green owned and operated Green's Hardware and also owned the lands and buildings where the business was carried on.

His younger brother, John, worked for him as manager as did his daughter, Susan. Peter died leaving a will in which he gave the business and the real property to John for life, with the remainder to Susan at John's death. John and Susan could not agree on how to run the business. John wanted to push sales and expansion as quickly as possible. Susan feared that such an expansion would make the business unstable. She preferred to build more slowly, consolidating the gains and the business. The dispute became heated and John fired Susan. Within several years, it happened that the business was in serious financial difficulty. John had allowed several buildings in other parts of the City, including an immediately adjacent warehouse (not shown in the picture but situated at the rear where there had been a large empty lot previously used for parking), to fall into disrepair. Susan sought a court action to force John to keep the buildings in good repair. Should she succeed? Explain your answer.

John died and left a will giving his whole estate, including the business and the buildings to his wife. Who is entitled to the business and why? Who is entitled to the lands and buildings and why? Would your answer be different if John (without Susan's consent) had placed a first and second mortgage against his interest in the property and allowed the first mortgage to go into default but not the second? Why?

As you can see in the picture, the building has an upper floor. John remodelled the upper floor by dividing it into four, separate, bachelor apartments with access through a main entrance at the rear of the building (not shown in the picture). He rented out all four apartments and his wife collected the rents to pay off the cost of the renovations and to put away whatever was left for the education of their children who planned to attend York University in Toronto. Who is entitled to the rent money saved now that John is dead? Why? Who is entitled to collect the rents going forward and why? Would your answer be different if the property were mortgaged by John and the mortgage was in default at the time of his death? Why?