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Carleton University can reclaim $500k in pension paid to deceased professor: court

Carleton University in Ottawa, Ont., on June 4, 2017.

Carleton University has won the right to reclaim roughly $500,000 in pension payments made to a former professor who was missing for years before his remains were found in the woods near his Quebec home.

Quebec’s highest court has sided with the university in ordering that it be reimbursed for the payments made to George Roseme, a retired political science professor, over nearly seven years.

In a decision released this week, the court said Roseme’s right to the payments ended when he died, not on the date his body was discovered or on the date his death was certified.

Court documents show Roseme had signed a memorandum agreeing that his pension payments would cease with his death, rather than going to his heirs or estate.

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The former professor was 77 and suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s disease when he went missing in September 2007. Documents say a six-day search failed to locate him.

Carleton was not informed of his disappearance and only learned of it in early 2009 after a story was published in a local newspaper.

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