Michael Carlson

The applicants purchased a home in 1988, unaware that a 1984 mortgage registered by the previous owners had not been discharged.

In 2017, the applicants discovered the undischarged mortgage and requested its removal, but the respondent mortgagee demanded nearly $1 million for its discharge.

The applicants brought an application to declare the mortgage void.

The Superior Court of Justice granted the application, finding that the respondent's right to enforce the mortgage had been extinguished by the ten-year limitation period under the Real Property Limitations Act, as no payments or acknowledgments had been made since 1985.

The court directed the removal of the mortgage from title and awarded costs to the applicants.

The applicants sought an order enforcing their deeded right-of-way over a shared laneway and prohibiting the respondents from blocking it.

The responding neighbour argued that the applicants had abandoned their right-of-way through historical non-use and the erection of fences.

The court held that mere non-use is insufficient to prove abandonment and found no evidence of a deliberate act to abandon the easement.

The court granted the application, enjoining the respondents from blocking the laneway, and awarded partial indemnity costs to the applicants.