Cushing v Dupuy

Cushing v Dupuy
Cover page of the British North America Act, 1867
Court	Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Full case name	Charles Cushing v Louis Dupuy
Decided	15 April 1880
Citation	1880 UKPC 22, (1880) 5 AC 409
Case history
Prior actions	Dupuy v. Cushing, (1878) 22 LCJ 201
Appealed from	Quebec Court of Queen's Bench (Appeal Side)
Court membership
Judges sitting	Sir James W. Colvile Sir Barnes Peacock Sir Montague E. Smith Sir Robert P. Collier
Case opinions
Decision by	Sir Montague E. Smith
Keywords
Division of powers, insolvency law, finality of judgments, royal prerogative

Cushing v Dupuy is a Canadian constitutional law case decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1880, at that time the highest court of appeal for the British Empire, including Canada. The case was on appeal from the Quebec Court of Queen's Bench (Appeal Side), and dealt with the following issues:

• the federal jurisdiction over insolvency law in Canada,
• when appeals as of right to the Privy Council can be excluded by a local legislature, and
• how the royal prerogative may properly be ousted by statute.^[1]

It was also notable for holding that, though the Privy Council would only exceptionally depart from its own previous decisions, it was not bound by them.