{"id":91,"date":"2014-10-10T19:13:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T23:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=91"},"modified":"2015-09-07T14:54:14","modified_gmt":"2015-09-07T18:54:14","slug":"ontario-the-court-of-appeal-reminds-us-to-respond-to-limitations-defences-by-delivering-a-reply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=91","title":{"rendered":"Ontario: The Court of Appeal reminds us to respond to limitations defences by delivering a reply"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Court of Appeal decision in <a href=\"http:\/\/canlii.ca\/t\/gdvj3\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Collins v. Cortez <\/em><\/a>is a reminder that plaintiffs may respond to a limitations defence by delivering a reply.\u00a0 Plaintiffs needn&#8217;t plead facts supporting a discovery argument in the Statement of Claim in anticipation of a limitations defence.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Collins<\/em>, Cortez moved to dismiss Collins\u2019s personal injury claim on the basis that it was commenced two years after her accident and statute-barred by the expiry of the limitations period. Justice Gordon granted the motion. He gave effect to the presumption in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.e-laws.gov.on.ca\/html\/statutes\/french\/elaws_statutes_02l24_f.htm#s5s1\" target=\"_blank\">section 5(2)<\/a> of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.e-laws.gov.on.ca\/html\/statutes\/english\/elaws_statutes_02l24_e.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Limitations Act, 2002 <\/em><\/a>that the limitation period commenced on the date of accident. He held that because Collins did not plead discoverability facts in her Statement of Claim, she couldn\u2019t make out a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.e-laws.gov.on.ca\/html\/statutes\/french\/elaws_statutes_02l24_f.htm#s5s1\" target=\"_blank\">section 5(1)<\/a> discoverability argument.<\/p>\n<p>The Court of Appeal allowed Collins\u2019s appeal:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the normal course, if a limitations defence is raised, as here, in a statement of defence, and the plaintiff relies on the discoverability principle, the material facts relevant to discoverability should be pleaded in reply. I disagree with the conclusion of the motion judge that the appellant was required to plead the facts relevant to discoverability in her statement of claim. The expiry of a limitation period is a defence to an action that must be pleaded in a statement of defence. As such, discoverability, which is relevant to the limitations defence, need not be anticipated by a plaintiff and addressed in her statement of claim [citations omitted].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Update: <a href=\"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=277\" target=\"_blank\">Failing to deliver a Reply won&#8217;t necessarily bar a plaintiff from arguing discoverability<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Court of Appeal decision in Collins v. Cortez is a reminder that plaintiffs may respond to a limitations defence by delivering a reply.\u00a0 Plaintiffs needn&#8217;t plead facts supporting a discovery argument in the Statement of Claim in anticipation of a limitations defence. In Collins, Cortez moved to dismiss Collins\u2019s personal injury claim on the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=91\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ontario: The Court of Appeal reminds us to respond to limitations defences by delivering a reply<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9,23,36],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ontario","tag-discovery","tag-ontario-act-s-5","tag-pleading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}