The appellant and respondents held competing claims to mineral rights in a parcel of land under the Torrens system.
The appellant claimed priority through a lease caveated in 1976, which he acquired by assignment in 1979.
The respondents claimed through a chain of interests originating from an agreement of sale caveated in 1969, but that caveat had lapsed in 1978.
The Supreme Court of Canada held that the lapse of a caveat results in the loss of priority for the underlying interest vis-à-vis other encumbrancers.
Furthermore, the appellant, as an assignee, stepped into the priority position of the original 1976 caveat, undiminished by the respondents' intervening caveats.
The appeal was allowed and the non-suit order was quashed.
