Ontario Real Property Limitations Act s. 4

Ontario: co-owner dispossession under the RPLA

 

In Billimoria v. Mistry, the court founds that Real Property Limitation Act‘s adverse possession provisions apply to situations of co-ownership.  One co-owner may claim under the RPLA that another co-owner has been dispossessed of the property and is precluded from a claim to it because his or her rights have been extinguished:

[63]           Section 4 of the RPLA establishes a 10-year limitation period for a dispossessed owner to bring an action to recover possession, once the right to bring the action has accrued.  Section 5 is concerned with situations in which the holder of the paper title and has been dispossessed or has discontinued possession.  It provides that the right to bring an action begins at the time of dispossession or discontinuance of possession. Section 15 provides that if the dispossessed owner has not attempted to recover the land within ten years after the right to bring the action accrued, the right and title of the owner of the land is extinguished: Osman v. Heath, 2016 ONSC 4812 at para. 49.

[64]           The principals respecting adverse possession are well-established in the jurisprudence.   In Nelson (City) v. Mowatt, 2017 SCC 8 at para. 17, Brown J. explained that adverse possession is the common law doctrine “by which the right of a prior possessor off land, typically the holder of the registered title and therefore sometimes referred to as the “true owner”, may be displaced by a trespasser whose possession of the land goes unchallenged for a prescribed period of time”.

[65]           This case here does not involve a trespasser.  It involves one co-owner and possessor of the land who seeks to displace ownership of another co-owner who is said to have been dispossessed of the property.  I do not accept the defendants’ position that the RPLA is inapplicable to situations of co-ownership.  I see no legal impediment to one co-owner making a claim, under this legislation, that his or her co-owner has been dispossessed of the property for ten years and, as a result, is precluded from making a claim to it because his or her rights over the land were extinguished.

Ontario: common law discovery and s. 4 of the RPLA

Khan v. Taji confirms that common law discovery applies to the limitation period in s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act.  It provides a good overview of the issue:

[72]           The defendants argue that the discoverability principle in s. 5 of the Limitations Act, 2002, has no application to s. 4 of the RPLA. They argue that the discoverability principle is a statutory construct, and does not apply unless expressly stated in the statute. In the absence of an express statement, the right to bring an action for the recovery of land first accrues the moment the trust is established, not on the date that a breach of trust is discovered.

[73]           There is no question that the application of the discoverability rule is a question of statutory interpretation, but the analysis is not as simple as that proposed by the defendants.  In Pexeiro v. Haberman, 1997 CanLII 325 (SCC), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 549 (S.C.C.), the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with the question of whether the discoverability rule applied to all limitation provisions or whether its application depended upon the actual wording of the statutory limitation. Major J. adopted the following statement from the Manitoba Court of Appeal in Fehr v. Jacob , at para. 37:

[T]he judge-made discoverability rule is nothing more than a rule of construction. Whenever a statute requires an action to be commenced within a specified time from the happening of a specific event, the statutory language must be construed. When time runs from “the accrual of the cause of action” or from some other event which can be construed as occurring only when the injured party has knowledge of the injury sustained, the judge-made discoverability rule applies. But, when time runs from an event which clearly occurs without regard to the injured party’s knowledge, the judge-made discoverability rule may not extend the period the legislature has prescribed. (Emphasis added)

[74]           In McCracken v. Kossar, 2007 CanLII 4875 (ON SC), Shaw J. concluded that the language of s. 4(1) of the RPLA did nor preclude the application of the discoverability rule, at para. 54:

Ms. Kossar submits that the discoverability principle does not apply to s. 4(1) of the Real Property Limitations Act. She quotes in support of her submission the words in s. 4(1), “… when the right to bring such action first accrued.” However, Fehr v. Jacob, cited with approval by Major J. in Pexeiro, refers to very similar language as leading to the possible application of the discoverability rule.

[75]           In any event, I note that s. 28 of the RPLA does expressly provide for a discoverability rule in cases of concealed fraud. Section 28 provides:

28.  In every case of a concealed fraud, the right of a person to bring an action for the recovery of any land or rent of which the person or any person through whom that person claims may have been deprived by the fraud shall be deemed to have first accrued at and not before the time at which the fraud was or with reasonable diligence might have been first known or discovered.

[76]           In the present case, the plaintiff has pleaded fraud with respect to the transfers of both properties.

Ontario: Court of Appeal narrows the s. 5(1)(a)(iv) “alternative process” principle

The Court of Appeal decision in Beniuk v. Leamington (Municipality) is an important addition to s. 5(1)(a)(iv) appropriateness jurisprudence.

It has become popular to argue that an alternative dispute resolution process with a clear and identifiable conclusion delays the appropriateness of a civil proceeding as a remedy, and therefore discovery of a claim.  Beniuk holds that this isn’t the law: whether an alternative process impacts on appropriateness is a question of fact that the plaintiff must prove.

The appellant in Beniuk argued that the Court of Appeal’s decision in 407 ETR stands for the principle that when there is an alternative dispute resolution process, an action becomes an appropriate remedy only when the alternative process concludes.  It followed that that the limitation period or the appellant’s action didn’t not run until the OMB confirmed that it did not have jurisdiction over its cause of action: if the OMB assumed jurisdiction, there would have been no need for the action; therefore, the OMB hearing was an alternative process that until concluded rendered an action inappropriate.

Nope, held the court.

A limitation period doesn’t run whenever there is an ongoing alternative process.  Whether an alternative process delays the running of time turns on the particular facts of each case.  Evidence is necessary to explain the basis for pursuing the alternative process rather than commencing a proceeding.

[60]      407 ETR does not stand for a general principle that a limitation period will not begin to run whenever an alternative process that might resolve the matter has not yet run its course. It is a matter of evidence. Indeed, Laskin J.A. noted, at para. 34, that when an action is “appropriate” will depend on the specific factual or statutory setting of each individual case, and that case law applying s. 5(1)(a)(iv) is of limited assistance because each case will turn on its own facts. In 407 ETR, the court considered the evidence on the motion about the statutory scheme and the effectiveness of the administrative process before deciding that it would be reasonable for such a process to run its course before a civil proceeding was appropriate.

[61]      Recently, several cases considering the application of s. 5(1)(a)(iv) have come before this court. The court has emphasized, echoing the words of Laskin J.A. in 407 ETR, that when a proceeding is appropriate will turn on the facts of each case: see, for example, Nelson v. Lavoie, 2019 ONCA 431, 47 C.C.P.B. (2d) 1, at para. 25, and Ridel v. Goldberg, 2019 ONCA 636, 436 D.L.R. (4th) 453, at para. 71.

[62]      This case did not involve an alternative process available under a statutory scheme. It did, however, involve an alternative process that the appellants were pursuing, as in 407 ETR, against the same party.

[63]      The fact that a plaintiff chooses to pursue an alternative process does not in itself suspend the running of the limitation period under s. 5(1)(a)(iv). Whether an alternative process will have this effect will depend on the particular factual circumstances and the evidence before the court in determining the limitations issue. In this case, there was no evidence to explain why the appellants chose to pursue the OMB route rather than commencing both an OMB proceeding and a civil action.

[74]      As I have already observed, 407 ETR does not stand for the general principle that it will always be appropriate to wait until another process has run its course before commencing a civil action in respect of a claim which has otherwise been “discovered” under s. 5(1)(a)(i), (ii) and (iii). It is incumbent on a party asserting that it was reasonable to pursue a claim in another forum to explain why this approach was reasonable. That is what occurred, and was ultimately successful, in the 407 ETR case.

[75]      While one of the principles recognized in connection with s. 5(1)(a)(iv) is the deterrence of unnecessary litigation, a plaintiff is not entitled in all cases to pursue one route, and to expect the limitation period to be tolled in respect of any other claim it may have in respect of its loss or damage. Said another way, s. 5(1)(a)(iv) does not permit a party to engage in litigation in stages for the same wrong. An example is Lilydale Cooperative Limited v. Meyn Canada Inc., 2019 ONCA 761, 439 D.L.R. (4th) 385, where this court considered the submission that a limitation period in respect of a third party claim in Ontario was suspended while the defendant was seeking to establish that Alberta was the correct forum for the litigation. Feldman J.A. rejected the argument that it was not legally appropriate to commence a legal proceeding while another resolution process that might resolve the matter was ongoing. She held that such an interpretation of “appropriate” was inconsistent with the purpose of the Limitations Act and could extend the limitation period well beyond the two-year threshold in an uncertain and unpredictable manner. There were also no significant savings to be achieved by not commencing the third party claim until the forum challenge was complete.

Here, the OMB wasn’t an alternative process, but an alternative forum, and the availability of multiple forums doesn’t impact on discovery because the law deems a party to know the applicable legal principles (that is, which forum is correct):
[70]      While I can appreciate why the appellants may have thought they had a claim for injurious affection, it has always been a principle of limitations law that a plaintiff knows, or could by the exercise of reasonable diligence, determine what legal principles apply. See, for example, Boyce v. Toronto Police Services Board, 2011 ONSC 53, aff’d: 2012 ONCA 230, leave to appeal refused: [2012] S.C.C.A. No. 265, where Low J. stated, at para. 23:
Section 5(1)(a)(iv) does not import an idiosyncratic limitation period calibrated by the claimant’s familiarity with or ignorance of the law. The test is an objective one. While it is possible to envisage that a new kind of right might arise that has not been hitherto protected, thus making it arguable that a civil proceeding might not be seen objectively as an appropriate means to seek to remedy, a battery causing personal injury is a classic example of the kind of wrong that is appropriate for redress by court action. A citizen is presumed to know the law of the land. [Emphasis added.]

This strikes me as a material and reasonable narrowing of the s. 5(1)(a)(iv) “alternative dispute resolution process” principle.  Whether an alternative process impacts on discovery is a question of fact, and the plaintiff will need to establish that it was reasonable in the circumstances to allow the process to complete before commencing a proceeding.  This should discourage some of the more creative alternative process arguments, of which I see many.

Also noteworthy is the confirmation that an action in nuisance or negligence for damages relating to real property is “an action to recover land” for the purpose of RPLA and subject to its ten-year limitation period:

[42]      Subsection 2(1)(a) of the Limitations Act provides that the Limitations Act does not apply to proceedings to which the RPLA applies. Section 4 of the RPLA provides for a ten-year limitation period for an action to recover land:

 No person shall make an entry or distress, or bring an action to recover any land or rent, but within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, first accrued to some person through whom the person making or bringing it claims, or if the right did not accrue to any person through whom that person claims, then within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, first accrued to the person making or bringing it.

[43]      When the elements that do not apply to this case are removed, s. 4 provides that “no person shall bring an action to recover any land, but within ten years after the time at which the right to bring any such action first accrued to the person bringing it.” The issue here is whether the appellants’ claim is an “action to recover land” within the meaning of the RPLA.

 [44]      The appellants point to the definition of “land” in s. 1 of the RPLA:
 “land” includes messuages and all other hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorporeal, chattels and other personal property transmissible to heirs, money to be laid out in the purchase of land, and any share of the same hereditaments and properties or any of them, any estate of inheritance, or estate for any life or lives, or other estate transmissible to heirs, any possibility, right or title of entry or action, and any other interest capable of being inherited, whether the same estates, possibilities, rights, titles and interest or any of them, are in possession, reversion, remainder or contingency; [Emphasis added.]

[45]      They rely on the term “messuages”, which refers to a dwelling house, its outbuildings, the area immediately surrounding the dwelling, and the adjacent land appropriate to its use: McConnell v. Huxtable, 2014 ONCA 86, 118 O.R. (3d) 561, at para. 14. The appellants also parse out and rely on the phrase “any…right…of…action”. Putting these pieces together, the appellants submit that an “action to recover land” includes an action to recover rights that run with the land, and that a cause of action for nuisance is tied to and arises out of the right to use and enjoy land without substantial interference. Accordingly, the appellants submit that a cause of action for nuisance is an incorporeal or intangible right that runs with the property and is captured by the definition of “land” in the RPLA. They point to a passage in Equitable Trust Co. v. 2062277 Ontario Inc., 2012 ONCA 235, 109 O.R. (3d) 561, where Perell J. (sitting on this court ad hoc) stated that the RPLA is intended to cover actions “affecting” land: Equitable Trust, at para. 28.

 [46]      I do not accept the appellants’ submission. There is no support in the jurisprudence that an action in nuisance or negligence for damages relating to real property is “an action to recover land” for the purposes of the RPLA. That land or real property is involved in an action does not mean that the RPLA applies: Harvey v. Talon International Inc., 2017 ONCA 267, 137 O.R. (3d) 184, at paras. 51-52. Typically, actions to recover land seek to assert property rights. And Perell J.’s remark from Equitable Trust that the RPLA covers actions “affecting” land has been commented on specifically by this court, and later by Perell J. himself, as a statement that should be interpreted narrowly and not out of the context of that case.

Lastly, I note that the court stated the standard of review with respect to each limitations issue.  For whatever reason, the court frequently omits an explicit standard of review analysis when considering limitations issues.  This approach is helpful and I hope to see more of it.

[41]      The motion judge’s conclusion that s. 4 of the RPLA does not apply to the appellants’ civil action is reviewable on a standard of correctness: Housen v. Nikolaisen, 2002 SCC 33, [2002] 2 S.C.R. 235, at para. 8. For the reasons that follow, I agree with the motion judge’s conclusion on this issue.

[53]      The question of whether a limitation period expired prior to the issuance of a statement of claim is a question of mixed fact and law and subject to review on the standard of palpable and overriding error: Longo v. MacLaren Art Centre Inc., 2014 ONCA 526, 323 O.A.C. 246, at para. 38. However, where there is an extricable error of principle, the standard of review is correctness: Housen, at paras. 8 and 36.

[79]      The appellants contend that the motion judge made a palpable and overriding error when he concluded that their claim was statute-barred even on the basis of what he described as a “rolling limitation period”. A “palpable and overriding error” is “an obvious error that is sufficiently significant to vitiate the challenged finding of fact”: Longo, at para. 39.

Ontario: the Trustee Act doesn’t supersede the RPLA

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.

Ontario: a messauge doesn’t necessarily engage the RPLA

The decision in Beniuk v. Leamington (Municipality) affirms an esoteric aspect of real property limitations (though to be fair, most aspects of the RPLA are esoteric).  It affirms that the presence of a messuage doesn’t necessarily engage the RPLA.

The plaintiffs argued that the tort of private nuisance to land was effectively an action to recover messuages and therefore subject to the s. 4 limitation period, which applies to actions for recovery of land.  Section 1 of the RPLA defines land to include “messauges”—a dwelling house, its out buildings, the area immediately surrounding the dwelling, and adjacent land appropriate to its use.  Whether or not the property was a messuage, the action concerned land, but was not to recover land.

Ontario: the limitation of breach of resulting trust claims

In Sinclair v. Harris, the plaintiff argued that no limitation period applies to claims for breach of a resulting trust relating to real property.  The court rejected this argument and found that the ten-year limitation period in s. 4 the RPLA applies. The defendant relied on a dubious interpretation of the Court of Appeal decision in Drakoulakos, in which some unlikely facts allowed me to make a successful s. 24 argument:

[18]           The first issue that needs to be resolved is what limitation period, if any, is applicable in this case.  There is a stark difference in the position of the parties.  The plaintiffs submit that no limitation is applicable to a resulting trust in equity.  The defendants submit that a 10-year limitation period applies to this trust.

[19]           The definition of a resulting trust is succinctly stated in Waters’ Law of Trusts in Canada 4th Ed.:

Broadly speaking, a resulting trust arises whenever legal or equitable title to property is in one party’s name, but that party is under an obligation to return it to the original title owner, or to the person who paid the purchase money for it.

See Pecore v. Pecore, 2007 SCC 17 (CanLII) at para. 20.

[20]           The responding parties argue that the plaintiffs’ action should be dismissed because any resulting trust established on the evidence is statute barred.  They rely upon the 10-year limitation period found in s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.15 (“RPLA”):

No person shall make an entry or distress, or bring an action to recover any land or rent, but within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, first accrued to some person through whom the person making or bringing it claims, or if the right did not accrue to any person through whom that person claims, then within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, first accrued to the person making or bringing it.

[21]           In McConnell v. Huxtable, 2014 ONCA 86 (CanLII), Rosenberg J.A. traced the history of the law of limitations in this province. With respect to s. 4, he held that it applied to constructive trusts where the claimant did not have any interest in the property until so declared by the court.  In other words, it applied to an equitable interest in land through the imposition of a constructive trust.

[22]           In Waterstone Properties Corp. v. Caledon (Town), 2017 ONCA 623 (CanLII), the court made it clear that the 10-year limitation period in s. 4 did not just apply to claims for the possession of land but would encompass claims of ownership of land advanced by way of a resulting trust (at para. 32):

The words “action to recover any land” in s. 4 of the RPLA are not limited to claims for possession of land or to regain something a plaintiff has lost. Rather, “to recover any land” means simply “to obtain any land by judgment of the Court” and thus these words also encompass claims for a declaration in respect of land and claims to the ownership of land advanced by way of resulting or constructive trust: Hartman Estate v. Hartfam Holdings Ltd., 2006 CanLII 266 (ON CA), [2006] O.J. No. 69, at para. 56; McConnell v. Huxtable, 2014 ONCA 86 (CanLII), 118 O.R. (3d) 561, at paras. 38 – 39.

[23]           The plaintiffs rely on the case of Drakoulakos v. Stirpe, 2017 ONCA 957 (CanLII).  This was an appeal of a summary judgment motion whereby the motions judge granted summary judgment on the basis that the claim was statute barred based on the basic limitation period of the Limitations Act 2002. In that case, more than 15 years had passed since the plaintiff had known or ought to have known he had an action arising from a resulting trust.  The Court of Appeal overturned the decision because there was no limitation period for a claim based upon the transitional provisions of the Limitations Act 2002, where there was no limitation period for the claim against the trustee of a resulting trust or property still in the possession of the trustee under the former Act and the claim was discovered before January 1, 2004.

[24]           These comments, which are relied upon by the plaintiffs to support their position that there are no limitations for any resulting trust, must be read with care. The Ontario Court of Appeal was dealing with the application of the transitional provisions when it came to a resulting trust.  They were not making broad statements that are applicable to the facts before me. I further see Drakoulakos as distinguishable.  In that case, the court was dealing with taxi licenses and shares in a company.  It was unconnected to any real property. Thus, the Real Property Limitations Act would have no application to it. Similarly, in McConnell v. Huxtable, (at para. 41) Rosenberg J.A. held that s. 4 did not apply where the claimant was seeking an interest in a pension or a business. See also The Equitable Trust Co. v. Marsig, 2012 ONCA 235 (CanLII) at para. 19.  I see no conflict in these authorities.

[25]           Likewise, comments made in McCracken v. Kossar, 2007 CanLII 4875 (ON SC), [2007] O.J. No. 664 (S.C.J.) at para. 36, relied upon by the plaintiff, that queries whether equitable trusts are subject to the RPLA have now been overtaken by the appellate authorities noted above, and must be viewed in that light.

[26]           The plaintiffs submit that the limitation period does not apply since the claim is not about land but it is about the monies that Ms. Rock gave the defendants.  I cannot agree.  First of all, it is clear from the statement of claim and the evidence that this claim is about a resulting trust in a piece of real property.  The monies were expressly given to the defendants so that they could purchase the home and land.  This is not a case where Ms. Rock gave a sum of money which was unrelated to any real property to the defendants.  Here the connection is clear and direct.  Further, to try and distinguish the defendants’ authorities on this basis is futile.  In most real property transactions, money is involved.  The RPLA cannot simply be avoided by an attempt to characterize the transaction as being about money and not land. The fact that the plaintiffs are not actually seeking the return of the Beeton property or any other piece of real property, does not avoid the application of s. 4 given what they are seeking is “money to be laid out in the purchase of land” which fits within the definition of “land” under the RPLA: Harvey v. Talon International Inc., 2017 ONCA 267 (CanLII) at paras. 50 to 54 (dealing with a return of a deposit on the purchase of land); Scicluna v. Solstice Two Ltd., 2018 ONCA 176 (CanLII) at para. 25 (dealing with relief from forfeiture of a deposit for the purchase of land); Goldhar Estate v. Mann, [2016] O.J. No. 6872 (S.C.J.) (holding that the Act applied to equitable mortgage).

[27]           In short, the plaintiffs’ claim is an action to recover land and as such falls within s. 4 of the RPLA.

Ontario: the Land Titles Act and possessory and prescriptive rights

Aragon (Wellesley) Development (Ontario) Corp. v. Piller Investements Ltd. will be useful to the real property bar for its summary of the effect of the Land Titles Act on possessory and prescriptive rights (starting at para. 122), abandonment of easements (starting at para. 154), and prescriptive easements (starting at para. 165).

 

 

Ontario: the limitation of applications to recover real estate advances

In Scicluna v. Solstice Two Limited, the Court of Appeal reminds us that an application to recover monies advanced in a real estate purchase is subject to the Real Property Limitations Act:

[25]      Although the application judge should have responded overtly in her decision to Solstice’s limitation period defence, she was clearly correct to reject it. In my view, Yim v. Talon International Inc., 2017 ONCA 267 (CanLII), 137 O.R. (3d) 184 confirms that Ms. Scicluna’s claim is governed by the 10 year limitation period in s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.15(“RPLA”), not by the Limitations Act. I reject Solstice’s attempt to distinguish this case based on the factual difference that Yim dealt with a deposit whereas the “forfeited money” claimed by Solstice is no longer a deposit. The RPLA governs actions to recover “land”, and “land” is defined in s. 1 as including “money to be laid out in the purchase of land”. Ms. Scicluna’s application to recover monies advanced in a real estate purchase falls under that definition regardless of whether it is properly characterized as a deposit.al

Ontario: RPLA applies to all claims to obtain land

After a prolonged summer break, Under the Limit returns!

In Waterstone Properties v. Caledon (Town), the Court of Appeal reminds us that s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act applies to any court proceeding to obtain land by court judgment:

[32]      The words “action to recover any land” in s. 4 of the RPLA are not limited to claims for possession of land or to regain something a plaintiff has lost.  Rather, “to recover any land” means simply “to obtain any land by judgment of the Court” and thus these words also encompass claims for a declaration in respect of land and claims to the ownership of land advanced by way of resulting or constructive trust:  Hartman Estate v. Hartfam Holdings Ltd., 2006 CanLII 266 (ON CA), [2006] O.J. No. 69, at para. 56; McConnell v. Huxtable, 2014 ONCA 86 (CanLII), 118 O.R. (3d) 561, at paras. 38-39.

As to what it means to obtain land by court judgment, some direction comes from Justice Faieta’s decision in Wilfert v. McCallum from June 2017.  The prospect that a financial benefit may accrue to a plaintiff/judgment creditor resulting from a declaration to set aside a transfer of land under the Fraudulent Conveyances Act does not result in the the plaintiff obtaining land by court judgment.

[26]           With the greatest of respect for the views expressed by my colleague in Conde v. Ripley, 2015 ONSC 3342 (CanLII) at para. 48, the prospect that a financial benefit may accrue to a plaintiff/judgment creditor resulting from a declaration to set aside the transfer of land under the FCA does not result in the plaintiff “obtaining land by judgment of the Court”.  Accordingly, an action to set aside a fraudulent conveyance of land is not an action to recover land.

Ontario: claims for the return of condo deposits subject to ten year limitation period

The Court of Appeal has held that a claim for the return of deposits advanced toward the purchase of a condo unit is subject to the ten year limitation period in s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act.

Justice Epstein’s analysis in Harvey v. Talon International Inc. is refreshingly methodical and lucid.  It begins with the governing principle of statutory interpretation:

[40]      This is a matter of statutory interpretation. Statutory interpretation is governed by the approach described in Elmer Driedger,Construction of Statutes, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Butterworths, 1983), at p. 87, and adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Re Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd., 1998 CanLII 837 (SCC), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27, at para. 21:

Today there is only one principle or approach, namely, the words of an Act are to be read in their entire context and in their grammatical and ordinary sense harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act, and the intention of Parliament.

Principles Applied

[41]         Section 4 of the RPLA provides as follows:

No person shall make an entry or distress, or bring an action to recover any land or rent, but within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, first accrued to some person through whom the person making or bringing it claims, or if the right did not accrue to any person through whom that person claims, then within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, first accrued to the person making or bringing it.

[42]         When those aspects of s. 4 of the RPLA that do not apply to this case are removed, it provides that:

No person shall bring an action to recover any land, but within ten years after the time at which the right to bring any such action first accrued to the person bringing it

[43]         Thus, there are 3 requirements in s. 4: an “action”, to “recover” and what must be recovered is “land”.

[44]         An action is defined in s. 1 of the RPLA to include “any civil proceeding”.

[45]         “Recover” is defined in legal dictionaries as “gaining through a judgment or order”. This was the definition adopted for the use of “recover” in s. 4 in McConnell v. Huxtable, 2014 ONCA 86 (CanLII), 118 O.R. (3d) 561, at paras. 16-20, specifically, at para. 17, where this Court noted that the English Court of Appeal has held that the expression “to recover any land” in comparable legislation “is not limited to obtaining possession of the land, nor does it mean to regain something that the plaintiff had and lost. Rather, “recover” means to ‘obtain any land by judgment of the Court’”

[46]         I agree with the application judge’s approach on this point. This is clearly an action to recover.

[47]         The remaining question is whether what Ms. Yim seeks to recover – her deposit – is “land”. The definition of land in s. 1 of the RPLA is as follows:

“land” includes messuages and all other hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorporeal, chattels and other personal property transmissible to heirs, money to be laid out in the purchase of land, and any share of the same hereditaments and properties or any of them, any estate of inheritance, or estate for any life or lives, or other estate transmissible to heirs, any possibility, right or title of entry or action, and any other interest capable of being inherited, whether the same estates, possibilities, rights, titles and interest or any of them, are in possession, reversion, remainder or contingency;

[48]         In my view, the application judge was also correct in concluding that an application for the return of the deposit was an action for the recovery of “land”; specifically the recovery of “money to be laid out in the purchase of land”.

[…]

[51]         In support of this conclusion, I note that several cases have clarified the relationship between claims for damages and claims covered by the RPLA. The Supreme Court in Canson Enterprises Ltd. v. Boughton & Co., 1991 CanLII 52 (SCC), [1991] 3 S.C.R. 534, defined damages as “a monetary payment for the invasion of a right at common law”. In Toronto Standard Condominium Corp. No. 1487 v. Market Lofts Inc., 2015 ONSC 1067 (CanLII), the plaintiff sought damages based off the defendant’s failure to meet its obligations under a Shared Services Agreement. Perell J., beginning at para. 49, noted that the fact that real property is incidentally involved in an action does not necessarily mean that the action is governed by the RPLA. Among the cases he cited was Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corp. No. 1067 v. L. Chung Development Co., 2012 ONCA 845 (CanLII). In that case, this Court made the following comment, at para. 7:

Finally, we do not think that the [RPLA] applies to the case as framed by the appellant. In its Statement of Claim, the appellant frames its action as one for damages flowing from the respondents’ negligence, breach of contract, conflict of interest, and breach of duty of care, fiduciary duty and statutory duty. None of these relates to the categories of actions encompassed by the [RPLA].

[52]         Thus, had Ms. Yim’s claim been one primarily seeking damages, for example breach of contract, her application would be statute-barred. This would be true even if the claim for damages incidentally related to real property, specifically the condominium that was the subject of her APS. Claims for damages do not fit within the definition of “land” in the RPLA.

[53]         However, Ms. Yim is not seeking damages. She advances a specific claim under a provision in the Act, a provision that only allows for the return of her deposit and interest, not damages. The Tax Court defined a deposit in Casa Blanca Homes Ltd. v. R., 2013 TCC 338 (CanLII), as “a pool of money retained until such time as it is applied in partial payment or forfeited”. As noted by the Alberta Court of Appeal in Lozcal Holdings Ltd. v. Brassos Development Ltd. (1980), 1980 ABCA 72 (CanLII), 111 D.L.R. (3d) 598, “a genuine deposit ordinarily has nothing to do with damages, except that credit must be given for the amount of the deposit in calculating damages”.

[54]         This leads me to the consideration of “money to be laid out in the purchase of land”, a phrase on which there is scant jurisprudence. However, in my view an action for the return of a deposit fits comfortably within its plain meaning. Frankly, I struggle to understand what would fit within this phrase if not an action such as this.

[55]         On the basis of the foregoing analysis, I conclude that Ms. Yim’s application is not statute-barred. This is also true of the amendment of her initial application to specifically claim statutory rescission. As her application is covered by s. 4 of the RPLA, the applicable limitation period is ten years. The application is an action, which is defined as any civil action. She seeks “recovery”, which has been defined as “gaining through a judgment or order”. And the recovery she seeks is of “land”; namely, her deposit, which is money laid out in the purchase of land.

[56]         I would therefore not give effect to this ground of appeal.