I use devise and cancan gems and have simple model association: user has_many subscriptions, subscription belongs_to :user. Have following SubscriptionsController: class SubscriptionsController < ApplicationController load_and_authorize_resource :user load_and_authorize_resource :subscription, through: :user before_filter :authenticate_user! def index @subscriptions = @user.subscriptions.paginate(:page => params[:page]).order(:created_at) end #other actions end And Cancan Ability.rb: class Ability include CanCan::Ability def initialize(user) user ||=User.new can [:index, :show], [Edition, Kind] if user.admin? can :manage, :all elsif user.id can [:read, :create, :destroy, :pay], Subscription, user_id: user.id can [:delete_from_cart, :add_to_cart, :cart], User, id: user.id end end end The problem is that i cannot use subscriptions actions as a user but can as a admin. And have no problems with UsersController. When i delete following lines from SubscriptionsController: load_and_authorize_resource :user load_and_authorize_resource :subscription, through: :user before_filter :authenticate_user! Have no problems at all. So the issue in these lines or in Ability.rb. Any suggestions?