Legal Blog

Limitation Refreshed

Anderson Sheet Metal Ltd. v. Comtract Compressors Inc. 2023 Ont SCJ

Under s. 13(1) of the Limitations Act, the start date of a limitations period can be “refreshed” by way of an acknowledgment of liability from the debtor. The acknowledgment may be made by way of email, but must be made before the original limitation period expires. In this case, the creditor sent a statement of account, referencing a number of invoices, and asked when more payments would be forthcoming; the debtor responded, “we have obviously been having some difficulties in paying off this account. I will see what I can send you in the next week or so.” That was enough for the judge to conclude that the limitation period re-started from the date of that response and that any invoices that had not expired at that date had a new two-year limitation period.

Written by Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.