No. 2]
CASE AND COMMENT
STATUTES OF QUEBEC – HIGHLIGHTS OF 1957
The most significant statutes of legal interest enacted in Quebec during the
past year were all amendments to existing law. Perhaps the most controversial
will prove to be an amendment to Article 50 CCP whereby the following
addition is made after the word “by law provided”:
“save in matters declared by law to be of the exclusive competency of such courts,
or of any one of the latter, and save in cases where the jurisdiction resulting from
this article is excluded by some provision of a general or special law.”1
Another “amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure should have beneficial
consequences to the wage earning debtor. Article 599 and 697 CCP et seq.,
the Lacombe Law, has been changed with the effect that it reduces to more
equitable and realistic proportions, the seizable portion of the salary or wages
of debtors and gives more consideration to their family responsibilities. The
debtor can deposit the seizable portion of his salary without waiting until a
judgment has been rendered or action taken against him. It also contains
provisions to avoid costs and abuse of process.2
To avoid unjust delay in the course of a suit for damages resulting from an
offence or quasi-offence, Article 1056c has been added to the Civil Code pro-
viding that interest shall run from the date at which the action at law was
instituted rather than from the date of the judgment awarding the damages,8
The desire of the Legislature to aid those in a lower income bracket is
exemplified in a further extension of the Rent Control Act4 to April 30, 1959,
although this now applies only to the cases of houses of which the rent legally
in force on November 15, 1957, does not exceed $100.00 per month. 5
SyDwry B. SEDoFF*
RAYMOND BARxm-*
15-6 Eliz. II 1956-1957 Ch. 15. Le Dain, Gerald E., The Supervisory Jurisdiction in
Quebec (1957), 35 Can. Bar Rev. 788. Le Dain, Gerald E., The Twilight of Judicial
Control (1952), 1 McGill L. J. 1.
26 Eliz. II 1957-1958. Bill No. 12, January 16, 1958.
35-6 Eliz. II 1956-1957 Ch. 16.
414-15 Geo. VI Ch. 20.
56 Eliz. II 1957-1958. Bill No. 5, December 4, 1957.
*Of the Board of Editors, McGill Law Journal; third year law students.
