COURT OF CHANCERY

In the English legal system, a distinction was made between the common law and equity, the former being based on immemorial custom, and the latter on principles of natural justice. In England, there were special courts that tried equity law, with their own lawyers, judges, codes, legal precedents, and so on, resulting in a highly evolved system of law that existed parallel to the common law system. The Court of Chancery was one such court; it was originally developed to deal with those civil cases that the common law courts had failed to determine justly, and whose parties petitioned the monarch for special relief, and was held by the Chancellor, a member of the Privy Council. The system was automatically transplanted to most English colonies, for the keeper of the Great Seal, usually the Governor, automatically had the right to hold a Court of Chancery.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾

Establishment and Jurisdiction

As with the Court of Vice-Admiralty, the Court of Chancery in Quebec was never established by colonial legislation. The power of the Governor, as keeper of the Great Seal, to hold such a court was taken for granted by Murray and his councillors, and the Court sat for the first time in 1765.⁽¹⁰⁹⁾ Presumably, the Court had the same jurisdiction as its English counterpart, which was concerned largely with civil cases decided according to equity, and certain bankruptcy proceedings.

The Court was abolished with the rest of the existing court system as of May 1, 1775 by the Quebec Act. Given that the same statute restored French civil law, a Court of Chancery became largely redundant in Quebec and Lower Canada thereafter, although there were occasional attempts to revive it.⁽¹¹⁰⁾

Composition and Sessions

The Keeper of the Great Seal (in the case of Quebec, the Governor or his replacement) generally delegated his powers to hold the court to Masters in Chancery appointed by commission. The Court had no fixed sessions.

Revision

Judgements of the Court of Chancery in England could in some cases be appealed to the House of Lords;⁽¹¹¹⁾ whether this also applied to the Court in Quebec is unknown.

Legislation

Imperial Statute 14 George III c.83 (1774) (Quebec Act)
Abolishing the Court.

Page content last updated 2004-02-18