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ARTICLE · 12 NOVEMBER 2026

Court Of Appeal Summaries (October 12 – October 16)

Blaney McMurtry LLP
Blaney McMurtry LLP
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The Ontario Court of Appeal issued critical rulings on estate claims and municipal property ownership, establishing that the Trustee Act's two-year limitation period governs estate disputes even involving real property, while clarifying that registered subdivision road allowances automatically constitute public highways regardless of actual use. These decisions resolve longstanding conflicts between competing limitation periods and municipal ownership doctrines.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
John Polyzogopoulos
John Polyzogopoulos
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Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of October 12, 2026.

In Thiessen v. Thiessen Estate, the Court allowed the estate trustees’ appeal and held that the respondent’s claim to a 50% interest in his late wife’s home was statute-barred under the two-year limitation period in s. 38 of the Trustee Act, rather than the ten-year limitation period in s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act. The Court confirmed that, absent a specific legislative exception, the Trustee Act two-year limitation period governs all claims against estates arising from wrongs for which the deceased was liable, even where the claims involve real property, subject to very limited exceptions.

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