Sunny Rehsi (Of Counsel-Detroit, MI) coauthored “Ontario’s 15-Year Ultimate Limitation Period Bars Old Product Liability Lawsuits,” appearing in the September 2026 edition of DRI’s publication For the Defense. The article examines how Ontario’s 15-year ultimate limitation period can bar product liability claims involving older products, even where an injury occurs recently and the plaintiff sues within the ordinary two-year discoverability period. The authors explain that recent Ontario decisions, including Huether v. Sharpe and Hennebury v. Makita Canada Inc., clarify that a plaintiff cannot avoid the limitation period simply by characterizing an alleged failure to warn or other duty as “continuing”; there must be “successive or repeated actionable conduct” by the defendant. Referring to Hennebury, Sunny highlights the ruling’s significance for U.S. manufacturers, distributors, and insurers, noting that “the key limitation question is not simply when the plaintiff was injured or when the claim was discovered,” but when the underlying act or omission occurred. For product defendants, the practical lesson is to investigate the chronology of design, manufacture, distribution, warnings, recalls, and post-sale conduct at the outset of an Ontario claim and assess whether the 15-year ultimate limitation period provides a basis for an early dispositive motion.
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