Timothy Aitken resigned as chairman of the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation after its board rejected a deal he struck to end an eight-year legal battle with the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. (CBC)

New Brunswick's top court has let one of Lord Beaverbrook's grandsons off the hook in a drawn out dispute over dozens of works of art.

The Court of Appeal has ruled Timothy Aitken will not be required to testify in a lawsuit between the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton and the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation.

Aitken resigned from the foundation last year after its board rejected a settlement he had negotiated with the gallery.

The gallery's lawyers have been trying to depose him for years.

Aitken had argued he no role in the transactions at the heart of the legal battle, now in its tenth year.

Last year, a judge ruled Aitken's resignation meant he didn't have to testify.

On Thursday, the Court of Appeal upheld that decision.

The dispute is over 78 works of art, including paintings by Salvador Dali and Walter Sickert.

The foundation says the collection, worth millions of dollars, are on loan to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, while the gallery maintains Lord Beaverbrook, also known as William Maxwell Aitken, gave the works as gifts in the 1950s.

A trial date has not yet been set.

A separate dispute with the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation over a larger group of paintings was settled in 2010.