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Limitations Act

Conde v. Ripley 2015 SCJ

Wife attacked husband’s transfer of property so that there would be assets to satisfy a support award. The judge held that a claim under the Fraudulent Conveyances Act is a claim for the recovery of land. It is a 10 year limitation governed by the Real Property Limitations Act and not the Limitations Act, 2002. The judge stated: “It would be inconsistent in the extreme if a two year Limitations Act, 2002 limitation period were to be applied to an FCA action seeking to invalidate a subsequent transfer of an interest in land while the claim to the land itself is subject to a ten year limitation period. The action to set aside the subsequent transfer of the land would be barred before the action to claim the interest is barred, a result which appears contrary to common sense.” There is still a problem, pursuant to Stone v. Stone 2001 Ont C.A. to fit within “creditors or others”, particularly when the plaintiff is not a creditor at the time of the transfer. In this case, however, the claimant was involved in litigation with the transferor at the time of the transfer and was therefore a creditor. This case was decided shortly after Stravino, but no mention was made of it.

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