What is the test for ousting a property owner under the statute of limitations?

Nova Scotia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Spicer v. Bowater Mersey Paper Co., 2004 NSCA 39 (CanLII):

In Sherren v. Pearson (1887), 1887 CanLII 39 (SCC), 14 S.C.R. 581 , Henry J. who agreed with the majority, said: In all the provinces the law is well settled that acts of trespass cannot amount to what the law requires to give title under the statute of limitations, that is, the ouster of the true owner. An act of trespass in going on the property amounts to a disseisin for a time, but it is not an ouster; what the law requires is an ouster of the owner for twenty years. Numerous acts of trespass only amount to so many acts of disseisin; when a man trespasses on the land the true owner ceases to have full possession for the time being; but the moment the trespass is at an end the trespasser's disseisin is at an end and the complete possession is again in the actual owner. It is therefore required that the party should not only take possession, not only disseise the owner, but that he should continue that dissiesin so as to amount to an ouster, and that ouster maintained for the statutory period. That can only be done by some act of possession not merely by a temporary disseisin, and it must be over every inch of the land of which the party claims possession. [emphasis added]

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