Silver Sands Realty Ltd. v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General), 2010 NSCA 28 (CanLII)

This case was heard in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

Silver Sands Realty Inc. ("Silver Sands") owned a large parcel of property, which the company believed included a pond called Cow Bay Pond. When Silver Sands attempted to subdivide the property into saleable parcels that included both dry land and pond water, a local MLA suggested that Cow Bay Pond was actually Crown land, and so could not be registered and sold as the property of Silver Sands. When the issue came before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, the Court agreed that Cow Bay Pond is Crown land, by virtue of the provincial Water Act and Environment Act, which vest ownership of all provincial watercourses in the Province of Nova Scotia.

When Silver Sands appealed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, the Court held that the lower court had made no palpable and overriding errors in its factual findings and had made no errors in its identification and application of the relevant law. The company’s appeal was therefore dismissed.

To read related decisions, go to:

Silver Sands Realty Ltd v Nova Scotia (Attorney General), 2007 NSSC 291 (CanLII)

Silver Sands Realty Ltd. v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General), 2007 NSSC 292 (CanLII)

Silver Sands Realty Ltd. v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General), 2007 NSSC 75 (CanLII)

Silver Sands Realty Ltd. v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General), 2006 NSSC 388 (CanLII)

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nsca/doc/2010/2010nsca28/2010nsca28.html

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