Category: Canadian law
Who’s The Boss (2): The Current Boss vs The Old Boss
Who’s The Boss (1) is here.
Peter Townshend, of The Who fame, wrote “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss” as part of the lyrics to “Won’t Get Fooled Again“.
But this post isn’t about The Who.
Nor is this about Bruce Springsteen, but I suspect the mere fact I’ve used that name may get more automated looks at this message than I’d get if I’d written “Phil Ochs” of “Joe Btfsplk”. Not that I write for tweets or followers, of course. Heaven forfend.
Well, I could hope that I had nine particular followers, or at least 4 of 9 plus one to come, but I’m not holding my breath.
Who’s the Boss
[Originally posted on Slaw.ca on September 7, 2012]
A very witty Master of the Alberta Supreme Court once wrote:
[51] Any legal system which has a judicial appeals process inherently creates a pecking order for the judiciary regarding where judicial decisions stand on the legal ladder.
[52] I am bound by decisions of Queen’s Bench judges, by decisions of the Alberta Court of Appeal and by decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. Very simply, Masters in Chambers of a superior trial court occupy the bottom rung of the superior courts judicial ladder.
[53] I do not overrule decisions of a judge of this court. The judicial pecking order does not permit little peckers to overrule big peckers. It is the other way around.
South Side Woodwork v. R.C. Contracting (1989), 95 AR 161, 1989 CanLII 3384 (AB QB, Master)
Whence the title of this posting.
