In York Condominium Corp., No 382 v Jay-M Holdings Ltd., 2007 ONCA 49, the Ontario Court of Appeal had occasion to examine the “ultimate” limitation period provision found in s. 15 in the Limitations Act, 2002, in conjunction with its transitional provisions found in s. 24. This was the first case to interpret the 15 year ultimate limitation period. There was no corresponding provision in Ontario prior to the new Act coming into force on January 1, 2004.
The Court of Appeal held that if a claim is not discovered until after January 1, 2004, but the act or omission took place before that date, the ultimate limitation period of 15 years starts to run as if the act or omission had taken place on January 1, 2004. The Court reasoned that such an interpretation was not inconsistent with the intention of the legislators in creating the new Act or the underlying policy of the Act that created an ultimate limitation period of 15 years.
Therefore, undiscovered claims based on an act or omission that took place on or before January 1, 2004, will be barred by section 15 only as of January 2, 2019.
