This family dispute is certainly neither the first nor the last of its kind.

A father says he lent money to his adult son. He wants to be paid back.

The man’s offspring refuses to pay. He claims the money was a gift.

Gennaro Anastacio faced this situation with his son Benjamin Andrew Stewart.

It left Anastacio no choice but to haul Stewart before the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal.

Anastacio filed a claim stating that he loaned $5,000 to Stewart, and his son failed to pay back.

Stewart acknowledged that he received money from his father, but that it was a gift.

In deciding the dispute, tribunal member Trisha Apland applied the law on gifts.

Apland explained in her reasons for decision in favour of the father what the law entails.

“For there to be a legally effective gift, three things are required: an intention to donate, an acceptance, and a sufficient act of delivery,” Apland wrote.

The parties’ “familial relationship is relevant, but not determinative”.

“The evidence needs to show that the intention of the money as a gift was inconsistent with any other intention,” Apland also stated.

This particular case involved four money transfers.

On March 28, 2019, Anastasio sent Stewart the sum of $1,000.

In a Facebook message, he told his son: “I’ll send you a thousand tonight. I hope it helps. Ok, I just sent it. You don’t owe it back.”

Stewart accepted and thanked Anastasio for the money.

Clearly, that was a gift.

Three other money transfers followed, totalling $4,000.

Two of these transfers involved $3,000, and Apland found that the “fact that Mr. Anastasio gifted Mr. Stewart money in the past is not determinative of the nature of the subsequent money transfers”.

“Again, to prove the money was a gift, the intention must be inconsistent with any other intention and I find it is not,” Apland wrote.

Moreover, “I find an alternative and reasonable interpretation for the money transfers is as loans for temporary support as Mr. Anastasio asserts.”

A fourth transfer involved $1,000, and the parties’ November 18, 2019 Facebook messages “show that Mr. Stewart asked Mr. Anastasio to pay for an unspecified fee”.

Apland wrote that Stewart failed to prove that the intention of the said transfer was as an absolute gift.

“I find it was conditional and repayable…,” Apland said.

All in all, Stewart owes his father Anastacio the sum of $4,000.

As for collecting the money, that’s another issue.

Stewart left Canada for the U.K. while the claim was pending before the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal. It’s not clear if he is coming back anytime soon.