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In Wong V. Lui, the Courtroom of Enchantment for Ontario thought of the interpretation of s. 15(4)(b) of the Limitations Act. Part 15(4)(b) of the Act supplies that:
15 (4) The limitation interval established by subsection (2) doesn’t run throughout any time by which,
(b) the particular person with the declare is a minor and isn’t represented by a litigation guardian in relation to the declare
On this mater, the appellants had been interesting a call to dismiss their movement with respect to negligence claims involving constructing permits from 1987. The 1987 constructing permits had been issued in relation to faulty building carried out on the respondents’ house previous to their buy. Primarily, the respondents Jessica Wong and Trevor Tan, collectively bought a property on August 9, 2019. On the time of their buy, Ms. Wong was 31 and Mr. Tan was 39 years outdated. After the closing of their buy, the respondents found substantial structural, electrical, and different defects, together with faulty building and violations of the Ontario Constructing Code.
On July 7, 2021, the respondents launched their motion towards the appellants, claiming damages in respect of the constructing permits opening in 1987 and 2017. The appellant argued that these claims are statute-barred because the respondents had commenced their motion in July 2021, properly after the expiry of the 15-year final limitation interval underneath s. 15(2) of the Act on January 1, 2019.
The movement decide decided that the final word limitation interval underneath s. 15(2) didn’t run from 2004, when the Act was handed and the final word limitation interval was imposed, to 2006, when the respondent, Jessica Wong, turned 18. Consequently, the movement decide concluded that the final word limitation interval didn’t start to run till Ms. Wong reached the age of majority on July 11, 2006. Her motion towards the appellant was due to this fact not statute barred as she had commenced her motion on July 7, 2021, lower than 15 years after July 11, 2006.
The movement decide decided that “on a plain studying of s. 15(4)(b), the suspension of the final word limitation interval is conditional on simply two issues: (i) the plaintiff have to be a minor in the course of the final limitation interval; and (ii) the plaintiff should not be represented by a litigation guardian with respect to the declare.”
The only concern on attraction was whether or not the movement decide erred in failing to conclude that for s. 15(4)(b) of the Act to use, the declare should come up whereas the plaintiff is a minor.
Justice Roberts allowed the attraction and located that the movement decide erred in her interpretation of s. 15(4)(b). Justice Roberts said that when appropriately interpreted, s. 15(4)(b) solely applies to claims that come up whereas plaintiffs are minors.
Justice Roberts said that the movement decide didn’t take into consideration the precise functions of the exceptions for minors and people underneath incapacity when coming to her interpretation of s. 15(4)(b). By failing to interpret s. 15(4)(b) in gentle of the precise functions of those exceptions, the movement decide deviated from the legislative objective that had remained fixed for a number of a whole lot of years within the part’s predecessors, comparable to in s. 47 of the previous Limitations Act.
Justice Roberts said that the plain language of s. 15(4)(b), “the particular person with the declare is a minor”, is in current tense and hyperlinks the particular person with the declare to the current state of being a minor. Justice Roberts said that if the laws meant to incorporate individuals who had been minor at any time in the course of the working of the final word limitation interval, the textual content would have included the previous tense, specifically, “the particular person with the declare who was or is a minor”.
Making use of the requisite contextual and purposive strategy, Justice Roberts discovered that the one interpretation on a plain studying of s. 15(4)(b) that’s consonant with the opposite provisions of the Act, the basic objective behind limitations statutes, and the centuries-old coverage goals of the laws with respect to minors is that it solely postpones the working of the final word limitation interval for minors who’ve claims that arose once they had been minors.
Consequently, Justice Roberts allowed the attraction and put aside the movement decide’s order. Justice Roberts declared that the limitation interval for the respondents’ claims in relation to the 1987 constructing permits expired on January 1, 2019, with the consequence that these claims are statute-barred.
See Wong v. Lui, 2023 ONCA 272
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