{"id":317,"date":"2015-10-03T17:19:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T21:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=317"},"modified":"2015-10-03T17:19:12","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T21:19:12","slug":"ontario-time-not-suspended-by-a-litigation-guardians-conflict-of-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"Ontario: time not suspended by a litigation guardian&#8217;s conflict of interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The basic limitation period doesn&#8217;t run when the claimant is a minor or incapable person, except when the claimant is represented by a litigation guardian (see sections 6, 7, and 8 of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ontario.ca\/laws\/statute\/02l24\" target=\"_blank\">Limitations Act<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>If the litigation guardian discovers that she has a conflict of interest, she must take steps to have a new litigation guardian appointed.\u00a0 The conflict of interest will not suspend the running of the limitation period.<\/p>\n<p>Per\u00a0Justice Sweeny in <a href=\"http:\/\/canlii.ca\/t\/gkwvb\" target=\"_blank\">Socha v. Peninsula Towing &amp; Recovery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"Mainparagraph\" align=\"left\">[<a class=\"paragAnchor\" name=\"par24\"><\/a>24]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 The conflict of interest which is said to arise as a result of being named a defendant to a counterclaim cannot absolve a litigation guardian of his or her responsibilities to a minor. The conflict of interest may be seen as an indication that the litigation guardian has an\u201cinterest adverse\u201d to the minor (see <i>Murray v. Children<\/i><i>\u2019<\/i><i>s Centre Thunder Bay<\/i> <i>&amp; Murray<\/i>, <span class=\"reflex3-block\"><a class=\"reflex3-caselaw\" href=\"http:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/on\/onsc\/doc\/2010\/2010onsc845\/2010onsc845.html\"><span class=\"reflex3-alt\">2010 <span id=\"g5-0\" class=\"term1 g5 lmrp h lexumSolrTransition lexumSolrCurrentTerm\">ONSC<\/span> 845<\/span> (CanLII)<\/a>, at para. 25<\/span>). However, the existence of a counter-claim or the potential liability of a parent has not precluded a parent from representing a minor as a next friend (the precursor to a litigation guardian) as was the case in <i>Beckerson and Beckerson v. Dougherty<\/i>, <span class=\"reflex3-block\"><a class=\"reflex3-caselaw\" href=\"http:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/on\/onsc\/doc\/1953\/1953canlii129\/1953canlii129.html\">1953 CanLII 129 (ON SC)<\/a>, <span class=\"reflex3-alt\">[1953] O.R. 303<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Mainparagraph\" align=\"left\">\n<p class=\"Mainparagraph\" align=\"left\">[<a class=\"paragAnchor\" name=\"par25\"><\/a>25]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 In my view, a litigation guardian is not relieved of his or her duties to the minor or incapable person because he or she finds that his or her interest may be adverse. If that situation does arise, the litigation guardian should take steps to have a new litigation guardian appointed. The conflict should not have the effect of suspending the running of the limitation period.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The basic limitation period doesn&#8217;t run when the claimant is a minor or incapable person, except when the claimant is represented by a litigation guardian (see sections 6, 7, and 8 of the Limitations Act). If the litigation guardian discovers that she has a conflict of interest, she must take steps to have a new &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=317\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ontario: time not suspended by a litigation guardian&#8217;s conflict of interest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[158,156,157,27,28],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ontario","tag-appointed-to-guard-duty","tag-litigation-guardian","tag-ontario-act-s-6","tag-ontario-act-s-7","tag-ontario-act-s-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}