Andrew Mercer's cottage, near Bay and Wellington Streets, Toronto
Court
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Full case name
Attorney General of Ontario v Andrew F. Mercer
Decided
July 18, 1883
Citations
[1883] UKPC 42, 8 App Cas 767
Case history
Prior actions
Mercer v. Attorney General for Ontario, (1881) 5 SCR 538
Appealed from
Supreme Court of Canada
Court membership
Judges sitting
The Earl of Selborne, Lord Chancellor
Sir Barnes Peacock
Sir Montague Smith
Sir Robert P. Collier
Sir Richard Couch
Sir Arthur Hobhouse
Case opinions
Decision by
The Lord Chancellor
Keywords
Constitutional law, Crown prerogatives, escheat
Attorney General of Ontario v Mercer is a Canadian constitutional law decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1883, at that time the highest court of appeal in the British Empire, including Canada.
The issue in the case arose from the death of an individual, Andrew Mercer, without a will and without any heirs recognised by law. At common law, if an individual dies without heirs, the property in the estate vests in the Crown, called an "escheat". Both the federal government and the provincial government claimed the property, each relying on different sections of the British North America Act, 1867 (now known as the Constitution Act, 1867).
The dispute was litigated in the courts of Ontario and then the Supreme Court of Canada. The Ontario courts ruled in favour of the province, and the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the federal government. The Attorney General of Ontario, Oliver Mowat, QC, then appealed to the Judicial Committee, which held that the right of escheat fell to the provinces, not to the federal government.
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