Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Interim Report Respecting Osgoode Hall: Of the Commission to Inquire Into, Consider and Report Upon the Best Mode of Selecting, Appointing, and Recommending Sheriffs, Etc;, Etc
May it Please Your Honour:
Having been appointed by Royal Commission directed to us, to inquire into, consider and report upon, among other things, all officers of the. Supreme Court of Ontario at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, and generally to consider and report upon all matters pertaining to the placing of the offices held by them upon the most efficient and business-like footing, a thorough investigation into past and present conditions was held by us, and full consideration given to suggestions for improvements. We desire to express our appreciation of the frank and courteous testimony of the Judges, officials, members of the legal profession and of others, who appeared before us and gave us the benefit of their experiences and knowledge of the workings of the Courts and the offices connected therewith.
Historical Sketch.
For a proper understanding of conditions at present existing at Osgoode Hall, a brief statement of the several steps in the development of the highest Courts of Justice of the Province is essential.
In 1763, by Royal Proclamation, the Law of England, both civil and criminal, was introduced into the whole of Canada. In 1788 what was then Upper Canada was divided by Lord Dorchester into four districts and a Court of Common Pleas, with unlimited jurisdiction, was created for each. In 1791 the Parliament of Upper Canada, which had met at Newark (now Niagara) for the first time on 17th September, 1792, created the Court of Kings Bench for the Province and abolished the Court of Common Pleas. The new Court was given the powers possessed by the English Courts of Kings Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer, and was composed of a Chief Justice and two Justices. A Court of Chancery was established in 1837, with the Governor as Chancellor and a Judge as Vice-Chancellor.
In 1849 a new Court, known as the Court of Common Pleas, with the same power and jurisdiction as the Court of Kings Bench (then become Queens Bench), came into existence. A Court of Error and Appeal was also created in 1849, and, as reconstituted in 1874, consisted of five Judges, whose duties were confined to the hearing and disposition of appeals from judgments of the Courts of Queens Bench, Common Pleas and Chancery.
There were thus in the Province, from 1849 and until 1881, four independent Superior Courts, three presided over by a Chief Justice and one by a Chancellor. These Courts have been described as each being an absolute, separate watertight concern. The Courts of Queens Bench and of Common Pleas had precisely the same jurisdiction and dealt with Common Law actions, writs being issued by the one officer alternately in the two Courts. The Court of Chancery dealt with suits in equity.
The Judicature Act, 1881.
With a view to remedying a condition generally recognized as unsatisfactory, and to simplify the practice and unify to a certain extent the Superior Courts of the Province, the Provincial Legislature in 1881 enacted The Judicature Act, modelled upon the English Act.
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