Age of Majority Act

Short title

1 This Act may be cited as the Age of Majority Act. R.S., c. 4, s. 1.

Age of majority

2 (1) Every person attains the age of majority, and ceases to be a minor, on attaining the age of nineteen years.

Effect

(2) Every person who on the thirteenth day of April, 1971, had attained the age of nineteen years, had attained the age of majority and ceased to be a minor.

Application of Section

(3) This Section applies for the purposes of any law or rule of law in respect of which the Legislature has jurisdiction. R.S., c. 4, s. 2.

Expressions

3 (1) In the absence of an expressed definition or provision indicating a contrary intention, Section 2 applies with respect to the construction of the expressions "adult", "full age", "infant", "infancy" and "minority" and similar expressions in

(a) any enactment, regulation, order or by-law made under an enactment enacted or made before, on or after the thirteenth day of April, 1971; and

(b) any deed, will or other instrument of whatever nature made on or after that date.

Expressed contrary intention

(2) The use of words or expressions set out in subsection (1), or similar expressions, shall not, in itself, be deemed to indicate a contrary intention for the purposes of this Section without an expressed indication of a contrary intention.

Age reference

(3) In any enactment or any regulation, order, or by-law made under an enactment, a reference to the age of twenty-one years shall be read as a reference to the age of nineteen years.

Federal Act

(4) Where, by any enactment, an Act of Parliament or any provision thereof is made to apply in respect of any act, matter or thing over which the Legislature has jurisdiction, in applying that Act of Parliament, or the provision thereof, in respect of that act, matter or thing, any reference to the age of twenty-one years in that Act of Parliament or that provision thereof shall be read as a reference to the age of nineteen years.

Will or codicil

(5) Notwithstanding any rule of law, any will or codicil executed before the thirteenth day of April, 1971, shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, not to have been made on or after that date by reason only that the will or codicil is confirmed by a codicil executed on or after that date.

Court order

(6) In any order or direction of a court made before the thirteenth day of April, 1971, in the absence of an indication of a contrary intention, a reference to the age of twenty-one years or to any age between nineteen and twenty-one years, or to any of the expressions referred to in subsection (1), shall be read as a reference to the age of nineteen years.

"twenty-one years"

(7) The use of the words "twenty-one years" in an order or direction to which reference is made in subsection (6) shall not, in itself, be deemed to indicate a contrary intention without some further indication of a contrary intention. R.S., c. 4, s. 3.

Action or defence

4 This Act does not prejudice a right of action or a defence to an action that is based upon the age of a party and that was in existence on the thirteenth day of April, 1971, and, notwithstanding this Act, the law that was in force immediately prior to that date applies in that case. R.S., c. 4, s. 4.

Computation of age

5 (1) The time at which a person attains a particular age expressed in years shall be the commencement of a relevant anniversary of the date of his birth.

Application of Section

(2) This Section applies only where the relevant anniversary falls after the thirteenth day of April, 1971, and, in relation to any enactment or any regulation, order or by-law made under an enactment, or any deed, will or other instrument, has effect subject to the provisions thereof. R.S., c. 4, s. 5.

Accumulation

6 (1) This Act does not invalidate any direction or accumulation expressed in a settlement or other disposition made by deed, will or other instrument and executed before the thirteenth day of April, 1971, that, but for this Act, was a permissible period of accumulation.

Perpetuity

(2) This Act does not apply so as to affect the law relating to perpetuities. R.S., c. 4, s. 6.

Limitation period

7 Where, on the thirteenth day of April, 1971, a person had

(a) attained the age of nineteen years but had not attained the age of twenty-one years; and

(b) a right of action in respect of which the period of limitation applicable to the bringing of the action would have commenced to run on his attaining the age of twenty-one years had this Act not been enacted,

the period of limitation in respect of that right of action commenced to run on the thirteenth day of April, R.S., c. 4, s. 7.

Incorporation of statutory provision

8 Where any provision of an enactment, or of a regulation, order or by-law made under an enactment, is incorporated in and has effect as part of a deed, will or other instrument, the construction of which is not affected by Section 3, for the purposes of the construction of the deed, will or other instrument, this Act does not affect the provision of the Act, regulation, order or by-law. R.S., c. 4, s. 8.