Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Constitutional law – Right to equality – Bankruptcy and insolvency – Property and ownership – Real estate agency – Real estate broker – Commission – Sums held in account of bankrupt real estate agency – Trust – Constructive trust – Applicability in civil law – Whether harmonization of federal law with civil law infringes applicants’ Charter right to equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of law – Whether removal of Quebec Superior Court’s equitable jurisdiction provided for in Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act infringes applicants’ Charter right to equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of law – Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985 c. B 3, s. 67 – Federal Law - Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 1, S.C. 2001, c. 4 – Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s. 15.

When Groupe Sutton Royal, a real estate agency, went bankrupt, the applicant real estate brokers’ commissions were in its bank account. The applicants filed a claim for property with the respondent trustee, Demers Baulne Inc. After the respondent trustee disallowed their proofs of claim, the applicants brought an action in the Quebec courts seeking to be declared the sole owners of the commissions. The courts below found that the commissions were property of the bankrupt and could not be considered property held by the bankrupt in trust, since Quebec civil law rules on trusts had to be applied in interpreting s. 67 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

The applicants are asking this Court to intervene by declaring the differing application of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in the common law and in Quebec civil law unconstitutional.