A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

may be entitled to by law .... nlû2
England's Judicature Acts of 1871 -76 had already set a precedent by
incorporating Court of Chancery within the Supreme Court of Judicature.
Manitoba had, in 1886, redistributed the jurisdidions of the two sides of Queen's
Bench. lmproved dispensing of justice achieved at that time pointed the way to
further reform. In 1895 a new Queen's Bench Act was passed which
accomplished a sirnilar end to that of the Judicature Acts. The act described and
specified the court's jurisdiction:
The Court shall hold plea in al1 and al1 rnanner of
actions, suits and proceedings, cause and causes of
action, matters, suits and proceedings, whether at
law, in equity, or probate, or howsoever otherwise as
well criminal as civil, real, personal and mixed or
otherwise howsoever; and may and shall proceed in
al1 such actions, suits, proceedings and causes by
such process and course of proceedings as are
provided by law, and as shall tend with justice and
despatch to determine the sarne ... and the Court may
and shall, with or without a jury, as provided by law,
decide and determine al1 matters of controversy
relative to property and civil rights both legal and
equitable . . . . 103
The act reiterated in section 26 that "[tlhe Court shall have the like jurisdiction
and powers ... possessed and exercised by the Court of Chancery in England in
respect of the matters hereinafter enumerated or referred to ...." Following this
statement, the act itemized al1 equitable rnatters that would now be incorporated
into Qu~~B's Bench jurisdiction. These virtually duplicated those that had been
stated in the act of 1 880 (described above).
The sides of the court were thus drawn together into one system. Equity