Unjust Enrichment Claims in Common Law Relationships: A Guide to Joint Family Ventures

Alberta's Property Division Framework

Amendments to the Family Property Act in 2020 brought the property rights of adult interdependent partners (often referred to as common law partners) in line with those of married partners. In effect, these amendments extended the property division rights available to married spouses going through a divorce to all adult interdependent relationships going through a dissolution.

Regardless of the form of relationship, partners often contribute to joint family ventures during the course of their relationship. A joint family venture arises where both parties to a relationship contribute to a business or other effort to accumulate wealth.

What Makes a Joint Family Venture?

The Court requires the presence of several elements to make a finding that there was a joint family venture:

1. Mutual contribution: Both parties must have contributed to the family venture in some way, either directly or indirectly. Indirect contributions might include staying home to care for children or maintaining the household, which gives the other partner greater freedom to build up the venture.

2. Financial integration: The more integrated the parties' finances are, the stronger the claim that a joint family venture exists.

3. Intention: Courts consider whether there was any expressed or implied intent that the venture was a genuine joint family undertaking.

4. Prioritization of family: Evidence that one partner relied on the relationship to their detriment to prioritize family interests strengthens the case.

5. Causal connection: There must be an overall causal connection between a party's contribution and wealth accumulation.

Unjust Enrichment as a Legal Remedy

For common law relationships that ended before the 2020 Family Property Act changes, the legal remedy available was to pursue a claim for unjust enrichment. This allows a partner to claim a share of a joint family venture they contributed to, even if the venture is legally held by the other partner.

For a claim of unjust enrichment to succeed, three elements must be present:

1. The defendant must be enriched in some way or receive a benefit in a particular situation;

2. The plaintiff or person claiming unjust enrichment must have been deprived of something as a result of the same situation.

3. There is no legally or public policy valid reason for one parties’ enrichment and the other party’s deprivation. In other words, the plaintiff has to show that it would be unjust for the defendant to keep the benefit at the plaintiff’s expense. The defendant is open to give other reasons why it is fair to keep the benefit.