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Limitations

Waterstone Properties Corporation v. Caledon (Town) 2017 Ont CA

Developer was held to have agreed, in a 1973 subdivision agreement, to transfer land to the Town for a park. The developer did so, but the Town failed to register, and then lost, the transfer. In the meantime, the Town used the land as a park. Over 40 years later, the new, and related to the old, owner of the land and the Town each moved for a declaration of ownership of the land. The Court held that the Real Property Limitations Act governed.  The words “to recover any land” was held to mean “to obtain any land by judgment of the Court.” This encompassed claims for a declaration in respect of land and claims to the ownership of land advanced by way of resulting or constructive trust. The Court, however, held that the limitation period did not start running because, pursuant to section 5 (1) of the Act, the Town had never been dispossessed from its possession of the land. The Court agreed that the land was that of the Town.

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