The Appellants brought an Application for a declaration that the Registrar of the North Alberta Land Registration District (the Registrar) did not have the authority to amend the description of the Respondents’ title nor to register a 2018 Plan of Survey indicating that certain accreted land belonged to the Respondents. The Chambers Judge denied the Appellants’ Application, partly on the basis that the Appellants’ Application was actually an Application for Judicial Review, and was time barred by Rule 3.15(2).

Rule 3.15(2) states that an Originating Application for Judicial Review to set aside a decision or act of a person or body must be filed and served within 6 months after the date of the decision or act.

The Court of Appeal granted the Appeal and held that the Appellants’ Application was not an Originating Application for Judicial Review, and thereby not time-barred. The Court of Appeal found that the Appellants were not seeking an order of mandamus, which are orders targeted at an administrative body’s unreasonable delay or failure to make a decision. The Court of Appeal held that mandamus does not refer to any order requiring an administrative body to do something, including an order requiring an administrative body to reverse an incorrect exercise of authority, which is precisely what the Registrar had done. The Court of Appeal also held that seeking an order requiring an administrative body to do something does not distinguish judicial reviews from statutory appeals. The Appellants were seeking a statutory appeal brought under s. 184 of the Land Titles Act. Accordingly, the time-limit in Rule 3.15 did not apply to the Appellants’ Application, and the Application was not time-barred.