Kelowna man accused of abusing former partner won't get her property
A Kelowna man who was once arrested for allegedly assaulting his common law partner has lost out in his bid to inherit all her property and money.
Even though he had already taken half the property for $1 and cleaned out a joint bank account, Janusz Grelecki went to court to contest Marta Miles’ will in a futile effort to get the rest, after she cut him off and gave all her money to her two sons.
Grelecki and Miles met at a dance in 2010 or 2011 and started dating, according to the BC Supreme Court ruling issued last week.
She owned a home and some land on Partington Road in Kaleden. He owned a house on Gibson Road in Kelowna. From 2013 onwards they spent time living in both houses.
In November 2016, Miles transferred her home to Grelecki as joint tenants.
“The circumstances surrounding that transfer are unknown,” the court ruling says. “The Form A Transfer notes the consideration as “one dollar and natural love and affection”.
Miles had two sons from a previous marriage.
“Mr. Grelecki says that the deceased told him that her relationship with her sons was acrimonious because she felt they were abusing her financially and were always looking for a handout,” the court ruling says.
On Sept. 24, 2013, Miles signed a will in which she left everything to Grelecki.
“I declare that I have made no provision in this my will for my sons as they are both self-supporting adults and I have provided for each of them generously during my lifetime,” the will said. “Among the reasons I have not left anything to my children, include that I have been paying their bills for years and I sincerely believe they do not respect me. They are able to look after themselves.”
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On Nov. 12, 2021, Miles phoned her son, Emil, to report that “Grelecki had been physically abusing her, that he had threatened her life and that she was afraid of him,” the court ruling says.
The son drove to her home, took her to hospital then took her home with him. She had bruises and other marks on her face.
The police were called. Grelecki was arrested and charged with assault but those charges were dropped before going to court.
He also then cleaned out a joint bank account he shared with Miles, taking $13,000.
On Dec. 1, 2021, Miles signed a new will that divided her small estate between her two sons and excluded Grelecki.
At about the same time, she moved into a rental apartment in Penticton and lived on her own there until her death on Jan. 24, 2022 at the age of 79.
Grelecki contested the will, saying everything should go to him, alleging she had mental health issues and there were suspicious circumstances around the drawing up of the will.
“The core of Mr. Grelecki’s allegations of suspicious circumstances is that (her son) Mr. Miles actively took steps to alienate the deceased from Mr. Grelecki that resulted in her executing the 2022 will,” the court ruling says. “Mr. Grelecki calls this a ‘targeted intervention to swoop in and extricate the deceased and disinherit’ him.”
Grelecki argued that Miles suffered delusions for about six months before she left and her allegations of abuse were the result of a delusional state.
“He points to a series of examples of the deceased behaving oddly as indications of her declining mental health: believing someone was walking behind her when no one was there, believing Mr. Grelecki was in another room at the Partington Home when he was at the Gibson Home, asking him during a violent film if he intended to kill her, shaking her head violently while speaking of her sons, sleeping excessively and making comments that suggested that she was seeing things,” the ruling says.
In fact, Miles did have a history of mental illness, including being hospitalized twice in 2012 and 2013 — which is about the time she and Grelecki started living together — but had no record of problems after 2017.
The lawyer who drafted the will testified that Miles fully understood what she was doing at the time she signed it.
"The disposition of the deceased’s estate made rational sense when placed in context of the separation," the ruling says. "She had left the Partington Home and severed the joint tenancy. Mr. Grelecki has already received one-half of the Partington Home for free as a result of the Form A Transfer creating a tenancy-in-common."
The judge also ruled out mental health.
“There is no evidence that persuades me that the deceased was experiencing mental health issues from November 2021 to the time of her death," Justice Gary Weatherill wrote in the judgement. "Mr. Grelecki’s assertion is based on his self-serving observations of the deceased’s behavior in the six months prior to the separation and lacks the ring of truth. In essence, Mr. Grelecki’s application is in the nature of a fishing expedition and based mostly on self-serving allegations, inadmissible hearsay and innuendo.”
Miles was awarded court costs.
In 2021, Kelowna city staff told council that the Gibson Road house had “numerous life safety concerns” and they had spent a decade trying to get Grelecki to clean it up.
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That led to city council ordering Grelecki to demolish the building. He fought back and, most recently, filed a complaint with the BC Ombudsperson. The city is still waiting for a ruling on that complaint before taking further action, if any.
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