duties. Division to share of the said High Court of Justice appointed after the passing of this Act shall, so far as the state of business in the said division will admit, share with the judges mentioned in section thirtyseven of the principal Act the duty of holding sittings for trials by jury in London and Middlesex, and sittings under commissions of assize, oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery. Administration of assets. Provision as to option for any plaintiff (subject to rules) to choose in what 10. In the administration by the court of the assets of any person who may die after the commencement of this Act, and whose estate may prove to be insufficient for the payment in full of his debts and liabilities, and in the winding-up of any company under the Companies Acts, 1862 and 1867, whose assets may prove to be insufficient for the payment of its debts and liabilities and the costs of winding-up, the same rules shall prevail and be observed as to the respective rights of secured and unsecured creditors, and as to debts and liabilities provable, and as to the valuation of annuities, and future, and contingent liabilities respectively, as may be in force for the time being under the Law of Bankruptcy with respect to the estates of persons adjudged bankrupt; and all persons who in any such case would be entitled to prove for and receive dividends out of the estate of any such deceased person, or out of the assets of any such company, may come in under the decree or order for the admistration of such estate, or under the winding-up of such company, and make such claims against the same as they may respectively be entitled to by virtue of this Act. (a) 11. Subject to any rules of court and to the provisions of the principal Act, and this Act, and to the power of transfer, every person by whom any cause or matter may be commenced in the division he will said High Court of Justice shall assign such cause or matter to one of the divisions of the said High Court as he may think fit, by marking the document by which the same is commenced with the name of such division, and giving notice thereof to the proper officer of the court: Provided that sue. (1.) All interlocutory and other steps and proceedings in or before the said High Court in any cause or matter subsequent to the commencement thereof, shall be taken subject to any rules of court and to the power of transfer) in the division of the said High Court, to which such cause or matter is for the time being attached; and (2.) If any plaintiff or petitioner shall at any time assign his cause or matter to any division of the said High Court (a) This section does not interfere with an executor's right of retainer: (Lee v. Nuttall (No. 2), 41 L. T. 363; 12 Ch. Div. 61; 48 L. J. 616, Ch.) A registered judgment still has priority over other creditors: (Smith v. Morgan, 5 C. P. Div. 337; Winehouse v. Winehouse, 46 L. T. 362; Van Ghelnive v. Nevinckx, 47 L. T. 46.) to which, according to the rules of court, or the provi- (3.) Subject to rules of court, a person commencing any cause 12. Every appeal to the Court of Appeal shall, when the Sittings of Court of Appeal. subject-matter of the appeal is a final order, decree, or judgment, be heard before not less than three judges of the said court sitting together, and shall, when the subject-matter of the appeal is an interlocutory order, decree, or judgment, be heard before not less than two judges of the said court sitting together. Any doubt which may arise as to what decrees, orders, or judgments are final, and what are interlocutory, shall be determined by the Court of Appeal. Subject to the provisions contained in this section, the Court of Appeal may sit in two divisions at the same time. 13. Whereas by section sixty of the principal Act it is pro- District vided that for the purpose of facilitating the prosecution in registrars. country districts of legal proceedings, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty by order in council from time to time to direct that there shall be district registrars in such places as shall be in such order mentioned for districts to be thereby defined; and whereas it is expedient to amend the said section, be it therefore enacted that Where any such order has been made, two persons may, if required, be appointed to perform the duties of district registrar in any district named in the order, and such persons shall be EE Solicitors. Appeal from record. deemed to be joint district registrars, and shall perform the said duties in such manner as may from time to time be directed by the said order, or any order in council amending the same. Moreover the registrar of any inferior court of record having jurisdiction in any part of any district defined by such order (other than a county court) shall, if appointed by Her Majesty, be qualified to be a district registrar for the said district or for any such part thereof as may be directed by such order or any order amending the same. Every district registrar shall be deemed to be an officer of the Supreme Court, and be subject accordingly to the jurisdiction of such court, and of the divisions thereof. 14. The registrar of attorneys and solicitors in England shall be called the registrar of solicitors. 15. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty from time to time, by inferior court of order in council, to direct that the enactments relating to appeals from county courts shall apply to any other inferior court of record; and those enactments, subject to any exceptions, conditions, and limitations contained in the order, shall apply accordingly, as from the date mentioned in the order. Provision as to Divorce and Admiralty Courts. 17. Provisions as to making, altering, and annulling rules of court. 18. All rules and orders of court in force at the time of the rules of Probate, commencement of this Act in the Court of Probate, the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, and the Admiralty Court, or in relation to appeals from the Chief Judge in Bankruptcy, or from the Court of Appeal in Chancery in bankruptcy matters, shall remain and be in force in the High Court of Justice and in the Court of Appeal respectively until they shall respectively be altered or annulled by any rules of court made after the commencement of this Act. Provision as to criminal procedure. The present judge of the Probate Court and of the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, shall retain, and the president for the time being of the Probate and Divorce Division of the High Court of Justice shall have, with regard to non-contentious or common form business in the Probate Court, the powers now conferred on the judge of the Probate Court by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77, s. 30, and the said judge shall retain, and the said president shall have, the powers as to the making of rules and regulations conferred by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 85, s. 53. 19. Subject to any rules of court to be made under this Act, the practice and procedure in all criminal causes and matters whatsoever in the High Court of Justice and in the Court of Appeal respectively, including the practice and procedure with respect to Crown cases reserved, shall be the same as the practice and procedure in similar causes and matters before the commencement of this Act. 20. Nothing in this Act, or in rules of court to be made Rules of evidence, &c. under this Act, save as far as relates to the power of the court for special reasons to allow depositions or affidavits to be read, shall affect the mode of giving evidence by the oral examination of witnesses in trials by jury, or the rules of evidence, or the law relating to jurymen or juries. ing procedure of inconsistent with 21. Save as by the principal Act or this Act, or by any rules Provision for of court, may be otherwise provided, all forms and methods of saving of existprocedure which at the commencement of this Act were in force courts when not in any of the courts whose jurisdiction is by the principal Act this Act or rules or this Act transferred to the said High Court and to the said of court. Court of Appeal respectively, under or by virtue of any law, custom, general order, or rules whatsoever, and which are not inconsistent with the principal Act or this Act, or with any rules of court, may continue to be used and practised, in the said High Court of Justice and the said Court of Appeal respectively, in such and the like cases, and for such and the like purposes, as those to which they would have been applicable in the respective courts of which the jurisdiction is so transferred, if the principal Act and this Act had not passed. 22. Whereas by section forty-six of the principal Act it is Nothing in enacted that "any judge of the said High Court sitting in the principal Act to prejudice right exercise of its jurisdiction elsewhere than in a divisional court to have issues submitted, &c. may reserve any case, or any point in a case, for the consideration of a divisional court, or may direct any case or point in a case to be argued before a divisional court: Be it hereby enacted, that nothing in the said Act, nor in any rule or order made under the powers thereof or of this Act, shall take away or prejudice the right of any party to any action to have the issues for trial by jury submitted and left by the judge to the jury before whom the same shall come for trial, with a proper and complete direction to the jury upon the law, and as to the evidence applicable to such issues: Provided also, that the said right may be enforced either by motion in the High Court of Justice or by motion in the Court of Appeal founded upon an exception entered upon or annexed to the record. 25. Orders and rules are to be laid before Parliament, and may be annulled on address to the Queen by either House. 26. (6.) Any person who forges or counterfeits any such stamp (a) or uses any such stamp, knowing the same to be forged or counterfeit, or to have been previously cancelled or used, shall be guilty of forgery, and be liable on conviction to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years. (a) I.e. any stamp for the payment of fees under the Judicature Acts. Cases in which appeal lies to House of Lords. Form of appeal to House of Lords. Requisite of Appeal. The Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876. 39 & 40 VICT. C. 59. 3. Subject as in this Act mentioned an Appeal shall lie to the House of Lords from any order or judgment of any of the courts following; that is to say, (1.) Of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal in England; and at or immediately before the commencement of this (3.) Of any Court in Ireland from which error or an appeal at or immediately before the commencement of this Act lay to the House of Lords by common law or by statute. 4. Every appeal shall be brought by way of petition to the House of Lords, praying that the matter of the order or judgment appealed against may be revived before Her Majesty the Queen in her Court of Parliament, in order that the said Court may determine what of right, and according to the law and custom of this realm, ought to be done in the subject-matter of such appeal. 5. An appeal shall not be heard and determined by the House number of Lords of Lords unless there are present at such hearing and determination not less than three of the following persons, in this Act designated Lords of Appeal; that is to say, Hearing and appeals during prorogation of Parliament. (1.) The Lord Chancellor of Great Britain for the time being; and (2.) The Lords of Appeal in Ordinary to be appointed as in this Act mentioned; and (3.) Such Peers of Parliament as are for the time being holding or have held any of the offices in this Act described as high judicial offices. 6. As to appointment of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary by Her Majesty. 8. For preventing delay in the administration of justice, the determination of House of Lords may sit and act for the purpose of hearing and determining appeals, and also for the purpose of Lords of Appeal in ordinary taking their seats and the oaths, during any prorogation of Parliament, at such time and in such manner as may be appointed by order of the House of Lords made during the preceding session of Parliament; and all orders and proceedings of the said House in relation to appeals and matters connected therewith during such prorogation, shall be as valid as if Parliament had been then sitting, but no business other than the hearing and determination of appeals and the matters connected therewith, and Lords of Appeal in Ordinary taking |