APPENDIX.

WITNESSES ACT.

[17 & 18 VICT., cap. 34.]

ABSTRACT OF THE STATUTE.*

Section 1. The Courts of Law in England, or, when the courts are not sitting a judge, may order process to issue to compel the attendance of witnesses, although such witnesses be not within the jurisdiction.

Section 2. A statement must be made at the foot of writ, that it is issued by special order of the court or judge.

Section 3. Witnesses making default may be punished by the courts of the country in which the process was served.

* Until this statute, unless the parties chose to attend the trial, there was no means of obtaining the evidence of witnesses residing in Scotland or Ireland, but by issuing a Commission, under the Statute 1 Will. IV. c. 22. (ante, p. 35). The provisions of this Act may be enforced by the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster and Dublin, and by the Courts of Session and Exchequer in Scotland. Had it not been of this national character, its enactments would properly have formed part of the Common Law Procedure Act. As it is, it has been considered of sufficient practical importance to be given in an Appendix; for there are many cases, in which a Commission will not now be applied for, but the attendance of the witnesses secured, at the trial itself, by a subpoena issued under this Act.

Section 4. Persons are not to be punished if it shall appear that sufficient money was not tendered to pay

expenses.

Section 5. The Act is not to prevent the issuing of a Commission to examine witnesses.

Section 6. The provisions of the Statute are not to affect the admissibility of evidence where now receivable.

WITNESSES ACT.

[17 & 18 VICT., C. 34.]

An Act to enable the Courts of Law in England, Ireland, and Scotland to issue process to compel the attendance of witnesses out of their jurisdiction, and to give effect to the service of such process in any part of the United Kingdom. [10th July, 1854.]

WHEREAS great inconvenience arises in the administration of justice from the want of a power in the Superior Courts of Law to compel the attendance of witnesses resident in one part of the United Kingdom at a trial in another part, and the examination of such witnesses by commission is not in all cases a sufficient remedy for such inconvenience: be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. If, in any action or suit now or at any time hereafter depending in any of Her Majesty's Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminister or Dublin, or the court of session or exchequer in Scotland, it shall appear to the court in which such action is pending, or, if such court is not sitting, to any judge of any of the said courts respectively, that it is proper to compel the personal attendance at any trial of any witness who may not be within the jurisdiction of the court in which such action is pending, it shall be lawful for such court or judge, if in his or their discretion it shall so seem fit, to order that a writ, called a writ of subpœna ad testificandum, or of subpoena duces tecum, or warrant of citation, shall issue in special form, commanding such witness to attend such trial wherever he shall be within the United Kingdom, and the service of any such writ or process in any part of the United Kingdom shall be as valid and effectual to all intents and purposes as if same had been served within the jurisdiction of the court from which it issues.

2. Every such writ shall have at foot thereof a statement or notice that the same is issued by the special order of the court or judge, as the case may be; and no such writ shall issue without such special order.

3. In case any person so served shall not appear according to the exigency of such writ or process, it shall be lawful for the court out of which the same issued, upon proof made of the service thereof, and of such default, to the satisfaction of the said court, to transmit a certificate of such default under the seal of the same court, or under the hand of one of the judges or justices of the same, to any of Her Majesty's Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster, in case such service was had in England, or in case such service was had in Scotland to the Court of Session or Exchequer at Edinburgh, or in case such service was had in Ireland to any of Her Majesty's Superior Courts of Common Law at Dublin; and the court to which such certificate is so sent shall and may thereupon proceed against and punish the person so having made default in like manner as they might have done if such person had neglected or refused to appear in obedience to a writ of subpoena or other process issued out of such last-mentioned court.

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4. None of the said courts shall in any case proceed against or punish any person for having made default by not appearing to give evidence in obedience any writ of subpoena or other process issued under the powers given by this Act, unless it shall be made to appear to such court that a reasonable and sufficient sum of money to defray the expenses of coming and attending to give evidence, and of returning from giving such evidence, had been tendered to such person at the time when such writ of subpoena or process was served upon such person.

5. Nothing herein contained shall alter or affect the power of any of such courts to issue a Commission for the examination of witnesses out of their jurisdiction, in any case in which, notwithstanding this Act, they shall think fit to issue such commission.