When he died, the church officials of the Parish of Montréal refused to allow his widow, Henriette Brown, to have his remains buried in the section of the Côte des Neiges Cemetery reserved for Roman Catholics.

Brown brought a petition in the Quebec courts to require the church officials to allow her to bury her husband in the cemetery.

The Judicial Committee ruled that the church officials had to allow Guibord's remains to be buried in the Roman Catholic section of the cemetery, although without full religious rites.

Eventually, the Bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget, issued a pastoral letter forbidding membership in the Institut, and stating that no absolution was possible for member, "même à l'article de la mort."

The Church refused to permit the burial, except in the portion of the cemetery reserved for non-Roman Catholics and unbaptised infants, and without religious rites.

Brown then applied to the Superior Court of Quebec for an order of mandamus compelling the church officials to provide a burial for her husband in the Côte des Neiges Cemetery.

The order to have Guibord buried "according to custom and law" was not a specific remedy, as it did not make clear where the burial was to take place.

When the matter first came on for argument, on 2 December 1870, Brown's counsel applied to have four of the judges who were about to hear the appeal recuse themselves under s. 176 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

A week later, on 9 December 1870, they gave their decision, refusing to receive the petitions for recusation, or to allow them to be entered in the register of the Court.

Brown then applied successfully for leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the court of last resort within the British Empire.

On 21 November 1874, the Judicial Committee gave its decision, allowing the appeal and ordering the church officials to provide a burial for the deceased in the area of the cemetery reserved for Roman Catholics.

As well, he ruled that the original writ for mandamus was in proper form and gave the court sufficient discretion to craft the remedy sought.

[12] Finally, Phillimore J. reviewed the category of a "pecheur public," which was defined in the Ritual by reference to activities such as prostitution and usury.

Counsel for the church officials argued that this category was very broad, and could include any activities which the Bishop defined to be public sins.

Phillimore J. held that there was no indication in the record that the members of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec had at any time consented to such an expansion of the Bishop's authority.

On the second, successful, attempt, on 16 November 1875, the burial party was accompanied by an armed police and military escort, numbering approximately 2,500 men.

"[20] Some years after the decision of the Judicial Committee, the Legislature of Quebec responded to the decision by enacting a law which stated that the Catholic church officials had sole authority to determine whether a person could be buried in consecrated ground, effectively changing the law as determined by the Judicial Committee.

The Judicial Committee, conversely, concluded that while the courts were not Catholic leaders, they could uphold the people's rights and Guibord was entitled to a burial in holy ground.