The issue was whether or not an Executive Board of a society, incorporated pursuant to the Societies Act, RSA 2000, c F-14, was properly elected on November 21, 2010. In this case, it was important that the society was a private body rather than a public body.

An Originating Application under Rule 3.2 was filed on July 8, 2011, seeking, amongst other things, an Order setting aside the November election. The Respondents argued that the Application was not filed within the six month time period prescribed by Rule 3.15(2), applicable to Originating Applications for Judicial Review.

The Court noted that Judicial Review was “historically not available in relation to private bodies”. It was also noted that there is a distinction between public law remedies such as mandamus and certiorari and private law remedies such as injunctions and declarations.

The Court noted that:

It is unclear whether the drafters of the Rules of Court specifically intended the judicial review time limit rule to apply to private law remedies such as declaration and injunction. One might infer that to be the case, given the wording of rules 3.15 and 3.24(1) and the policy arguments for short limitations in both cases …

The Court determined that it was not necessary to decide whether or not the six month time period applied, because the matter could be settled on other grounds. However, if it had been necessary to decide, Macklin J. indicated that the six month limitation period would apply.