The defendants brought a partial summary judgment motion arguing that claims seeking enforcement in Ontario of German “Notarized Debt Acknowledgments” were barred by limitation periods.
The court characterized the acknowledgments as foreign agreements creating unilateral covenants permitting enforcement without a prior German court judgment, rather than foreign judgments.
Applying conflict-of-laws principles, the court held that German limitation law governed.
Under the German Civil Code, enforceable documents such as the acknowledgments are subject to a 30‑year limitation period.
As a result, the claims were not statute‑barred and the motion was dismissed.
