Other Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

Decision

[1] Leave to appeal is refused.

Overview

[2] L. H. (Claimant) married R. K. in 1973. L. K. (Added Party) married him in 1988. R. K. passed away in 1995. The Added Party and the Claimant both applied for the Canada Pension Plan survivor’s pension. The Minister of Employment awarded the pension to the Added Party.

[3] The Claimant appealed this decision to the Tribunal. The Tribunal’s General Division dismissed the appeal. It decided that the Claimant was not entitled to the pension because she was not married to R. K. or in a common-law relationship with him at the time of his death.

[4] Leave (permission) to appeal this decision to the Tribunal’s Appeal Division is refused. The Claimant has not presented a ground of appeal that the Appeal Division can consider and upon which the appeal has a reasonable chance of success.

Prelimnary matter

[5] The Claimant’s application to the Appeal Division does not set out any ground of appeal that the Appeal Division can consider. The Tribunal wrote to the Claimant, explained what grounds of appeal it can consider and asked the Claimant to provide this. She returned a copy of this letter to the Tribunal with handwritten notes on it.^{Footnote 1} This information was considered in making this decision.

Issues

[6] Does the appeal have a reasonable chance of success because the Added Party did not dispute the Claimant’s documents?

[7] Does the appeal have a reasonable chance of success because the Added Party “pulls words out of the air”?

Analysis

[8] An appeal to the Tribunal’s Appeal Division is not a re-hearing of the original claim. Instead, the Appeal Division can only decide whether the General Division:

1. a) failed to provide a fair process;
2. b) failed to decide an issue that it should have, or decided an issue that it should not have;
3. c) made an error in law; or
4. d) based its decision on an important factual error.^{Footnote 2}

[9] However, a claimant must first obtain leave (permission) to appeal. The Appeal Division must refuse leave to appeal if the appeal does not have a reasonable chance of success.^{Footnote 3} Therefore, to be granted leave to appeal the Claimant must present at least one ground of appeal (reason for appealing) that the Appeal Division can consider and on which the appeal has a reasonable chance of success.

The Added Party did not dispute the Claimant’s documents

[10] The first ground of appeal the Claimant presents is that the Added Party did not dispute her documents.

[11] This may be so. However, this does not point to any error made by the General Division. The General Division carefully considered all of the evidence, including documents filed by the Claimant and the Added Party. It also listened to their evidence at the hearing. It weighed all of the evidence and reached a decision based on the facts and the law. This is what the General Division is to do.

The Added Party’s words

[12] The other ground of appeal the Claimant presents is that the Added Party “pulls words out of the air – meaningless”. From this, I assume that she means that the Added Party was not truthful. However, the Claimant provides no evidence or argument to support this claim.

[13] The General Division’s job is to listen to evidence from both parties, and to give that evidence weight in making its decision. The decision explains how the General Division weighed the evidence. For example, the decision sets out several reasons why it decided that the Claimant was not in a common-law relationship with R. K. when he died, including that the Claimant’s written statements were inconsistent with this,^{Footnote 4} and that the Added Party stated that she was living with him at that time.^{Footnote 5}

[14] I have read the General Division decision and the documents filed with the Tribunal. The General Division did not overlook or misconstrue any important information. There is no suggestion that it made an error in law or failed to provide a fair process.

Conclusion

[15] Leave to appeal is refused.