Wilkinson v. The Estate of Linda Robinson is a reminder that the Trustee Act does not supersede the RPLA. An estate’s claim for the recovery of an interest in real property is subject to the RPLA, not the Trustee Act:
[19] The position of the Estate that the Trustee Act is an absolute bar to the constructive trust claim is not borne out by the prior cases or by the legislation. The Estate takes the position that if the parties were alive, the ten-year rule would apply, but since the death of Robinson, the limitation period becomes two years.
[20] While there is no doubt that section 38(3) of the Trustee Act is a hard limitation, there is no jurisprudence to demonstrate that the Real Property Limitations Act should not apply in cases of a constructive trust as has already been determined by the Court of Appeal in McConnell v. Huxtable.[21] In Rolston v. Rolston, 2016 ONSC 2937, the Court was asked to consider whether the Plaintiff’s claim for constructive trust was barred by the limitation period in s.38(3) of the Trustee Act. The claims were brought some seven years after the date of death. In considering what limitation period would apply to actions for unjust enrichment seeking a remedial constructive trust, Leach J., accepted at paras 58 and 59 that section 38 of the Trustee Act was intended to apply not only to tort actions, but to other “personal” actions. However he went on to note that the Trustee Act was entirely dependent on provisions of the Limitations Act, that the same legislation confirms that it does not apply to claims pursued in proceedings to which the Real Property Limitations Act applies and that as confirmed by the Court of Appeal in McConnell v. Huxtable, claims for unjust enrichment and associated remedies of constructive trust are governed by section 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act.[22] The heading of the applicable section in the Trustee Act refers to claims in tort. This is not a tort claim. This is an action for an interest in property.[23] A simple analysis is that the Real Property Limitations Act is dealing with a right to land, not with a wrong against a person. This case, as in McConnell v. Huxtable, deals with a right to property.
