The plaintiff suffered a property loss when its barn collapsed. The statement of claim for damages was issued more than two years after the date of the incident. The plaintiff argued that the claim was not discovered until it received an expert report explaining the reason for the loss. On a motion for summary judgment, Justice Lemon disagreed and held the claim was statute-barred since the plaintiff knew or ought to have known that it had a claim before it received the expert report. On appeal, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the motion decision. The Court of Appeal affirmed that discoverability does not require a plaintiff to know the exact act or omission by the defendant that caused the loss. What the plaintiff needs to know is that: an incident occurred that resulted in the loss; that the defendant did or failed to do something to cause that loss; and having regard to the nature of the loss a court proceeding is an appropriate means to seek a remedy. In this case the record showed that the plaintiff knew shortly after the collapse that the barn collapsed due to faulty design, construction, and/or inspection during construction, and that the defendants were responsible for these aspects of the development and delivery of the barn.
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