Fascinating question.

The legal doctrine of replevin certainly seems to apply in Ontario, but as I am sure you know, is usually used to recover stolen cars.  It's use in document recovery is quite limited, and I have never read of a Canadian case, although, of course, that hardly means it has not happened.

For those who are not familiar with the concept, it basically means that if you own something, and it is taken from you outside legal grounds, you still own it. Thus, if a politician walks off with local government documents, they still belong to the government. Internationally, you can look at Donald Trump facing charges for taking and keeping documents without the legal right to do so. There was another American example that hit the manuscript world circa 1980, when a dealer offered the state Archives of North Carolina (I believe) some colonial documents for sale  the dealer was shocked when the state seized them, declaring that although the documents had not been in state hands for 2 centuries (they were taken by members of the colonial government as they fled the American Revolution, and passed down through the family) the State of North Carolina had proclaimed upon establishment that it owned all the property and assets of the former Colony of North Carolina - AND HAD NEVER WAIVED THEIR CLAIM OF OWNERSHIP. I believe this was later upheld by the State's Supreme Court.

So, again, a fascinating question, but good luck finding a lawyer with applicable experience with the application to documentary heritage. It might have been used by the National Library of Canada in the 1990's in a court case in NYC over ownership of some Glen Gould docs, but a very rare example.

Have fun

Daniel German



Sent from my Bell Samsung device over Canada's largest network.



-------- Original message --------
From: Angela Fornelli <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 2023-08-15 3:30 p.m. (GMT-05:00)
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ontario Law & the Process of Replevining Records

Apologies if this has been asked an answered previously but I was wondering if anyone out there knows about Ontario law as it related to the replevin process? For example if a municipality, hypothetically, is trying to build a policy/by-law around getting back municipal records that are now at other institutions what other legislation or laws might help in that process?

Thanks for your time,

Angela Fornelli, MSc.
Manager, Corporate Records and Archival Services / Municipal Archivist
Clerk’s Office, City of Kawartha Lakes
705-324-9411, ext. 1136
Cell: 705-878-3030  www.kawarthalakes.ca<http://www.kawarthalakes.ca/>

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