A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

Benefits thus accrued to administration as well as ta justice.
The Court of Queen's Bench in Equity was wnstituted in 1871, the same
year that the Judicature Acts began the abolishment of England's Court of
Chancery. Why was equity introduced into Manitoba at this time? As mentioned
above, it was an English system of law that entered the western territory via the
Hudson's Bay Company charter. That predisposed the inclusion of an equitable
jurisdiction in Manitoba's cwrt system. The court and legal system of Ontario
was transplanted, practically, from that province to Manitoba. Ontario's Court of
Chancery was functioning during this period and that meant that the pattern in
use there courd easil y be replicated.
Why did Equity endure in Manitoba when it had ceased to exist in other
provinces? Equitable doctrines tend to develop when the common law cannot
meet the demands of a changing scciety. Equity established itself during the
1870s, along with other superior and inferior court jurisdictions. It served the
administration of justice well through the rapid societal changes of 1 872 to the
early 1880s. But as British-Ontarian society became entrenched, so did the
court and legal "culture." It was, perhaps, to be expected that Manitoba would
follow Ontario's lead and abolish its Court of Queen's Bench in Equity.
Equity remains today an integral part of the justice system. It is
partiwlarly important in the area of trusts, where its principles protect the
interests of the beneficiary.lm With respect to wills, equity can alleviate a
situation in which a settlement may be morally or ethically unacceptable, even