What is the case law around short limitation periods for a claim under the statute of limitation?

Alberta, Canada


The following excerpt is from James H. Meek Trust v. San Juan Resources Inc., 2005 ABQB 9 (CanLII):

In Peixeiro v. Haberman [15], Major J. set out the rationale for short limitation periods: There are three, and they may be described as the certainty, evidentiary, and diligence rationales.... Statutes of limitations have long been said to be statutes of repose.... The reasoning is straightforward enough. There comes a time, it is said, when a potential defendant should be secure in his reasonable expectation that he will not be held to account for ancient obligations.... The second rationale is evidentiary and concerns the desire to foreclose claims based on stale evidence. Once the limitation period has lapsed, the potential defendant should no longer be concerned about the preservation of evidence relevant to the claim.... Finally, plaintiffs are expected to act diligently and not “sleep on their rights”; statutes of limitation are an incentive for plaintiffs to bring suit in a timely fashion.

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