Summary Jurisdiction Procedure

THE SUMMARY JURISDICTION

ACT, 1884.

(47 & 48 VICT. c. 43.)

An Act to repeal divers Enactments rendered unnecessary by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts and other Acts relating to Proceedings before Courts of Summary Jurisdiction, and to make further provision for the uniformity of Proceedings before those Courts.

[7th August 1884.]

1. Short title.] This Act may be cited as the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1884.

As to the object of this Act, see DENMAN, J.'s, judgment in Shingler v. Smith, ante, p. 176.

2. [Repealed by 61 & 62 Vict. c. 22.]

3. Repeal of obsolete punishments for non-payment of fines and other sums of money.] So much of any Act as enacts that a person on non-payment of a sum of money adjudged to be paid by the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction in England shall be liable to be whipped or to any other punishment than imprisonment, with or without hard labour, is hereby repealed.

4. Repeal of Acts in Schedule.] The Acts contained in the schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent in the third column of that schedule mentioned.

Provided that

(1) Where an enactment extends beyond England that enactment shall be repealed only as regards England; and

(2) The expression in the said schedule "conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction" shall mean a conviction or order made in pursuance of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

A reference in any Act of Parliament or other document to any enactment repealed by this Act, whether incorporating or applying such enactment or otherwise, shall be construed to refer to the corresponding enactment in the

Summary Jurisdiction Acts, and so far as there is no such corresponding enactment shall be repealed.

By the Schedule 56 Geo. 3, c. 39, s. 17; 4 Geo. 4, c. 95, s. 87 ; 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 50, s. 105; 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, s. 269, were repealed in part so far as relates to an appeal against a conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction.

As to the object of this Act of Parliament, and the effect of its repeals, see the judgment of DENMAN, J., in Shingler v. Smith, in note to s. 31 of S. J. Act, 1879, ante, p. 176.

As to the repeals implied in this Act as distinguished from those expressed in the Schedule, see R. v. Glamorganshire JJ. (1889), ante, p. 177.

5. Removal of doubts as to application of Summary Jurisdiction Acts.] The repeal enacted by this Act shall not take away any jurisdiction of any justices to act summarily in any matter referred to in an enactment hereby repealed, and the Summary Jurisdiction Acts shall, so far as is consistent with the tenor thereof, apply to every proceeding before justices as to which the procedure is wholly or partly repealed by this Act in substitution for the procedure so repealed.

Where by virtue of the repeal enacted by this Act or otherwise any statute authorising the infliction by any justice or justices of a penalty or fine, either as a sole punishment or as an alternative punishment for imprisonment, provides no method for the recovery of such penalty or fine, sections nineteen and twenty-one of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 43), as amended by section twenty-one of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 49), shall apply to the recovery of such penalty or fine.

6. Application of provisions of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, respecting appeals to appeals under prior Acts.] Where a person is authorised by any Act passed before the commencement of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, to appeal from the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction made in pursuance of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, or from the refusal to make any conviction or order in pursuance of those Acts, to a court of general or quarter sessions, he shall after the passing of this Act appeal to such court subject to the conditions and regulations contained in the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, with respect to an appeal to a court of general or quarter sessions.

In Boulter v. Kent JJ. and Others it was held that a licensing meeting of justices is not a court of summary jurisdiction within

Sect. 4.

Sect. 6.

NOTE.

the meaning of the S. J. Acts (61 J. P. 532; 13 T. L. R. 538 ; 66 L. J. Q. B. 787; 77 L. T. 288). This case overruled Reg. v. Glamorganshire JJ., [1892] 1 Q. B. 621; 56 J. P. 232, 437; 61 L. J. M. C. 169; and the learned editor of Paterson's Licensing Acts (17th ed.) says, at p. 434, "An appeal from licensing justices is regulated by the provisions of the Alehouse Act, 1828 (9 Geo. 4, c. 61). See s. 27.”

See 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, s. 31, ante, p. 174.

Appeals against poor law orders of removal are excluded from this section (R. v. Somersetshire JJ., 22 Q. B. D. 625 ; 53 J. P. 470 ; 58 L. J. M. C. 155).

7. [Repealed by 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63, s. 41.]

8. Extension of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, s. 30.] The power of the thirtieth section of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, given to the justices or council therein mentioned to provide a petty sessional court-house shall be deemed to extend to providing more than one such petty sessional court-house if the justices or council shall think it necessary or expedient so to do.

A petty sessional court-house or occasional court-house for the use of the justices of any county may be outside the limits of the petty sessional division for which such court-house is provided or appointed, and may be either in the said county, or in any adjoining county or borough, and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of any justices acting in such court-house the same shall be deemed to be within the county and the petty sessional division for which such justices act.

9. Removal of doubts as to effect of 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 227.] Nothing in section two hundred and twenty-seven of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 50), shall be taken to have repealed section thirty-eight of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879.

The provision referred to in 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 227, is as to the power of borough constables to take bail. See notes to s. 38, S. J. Act, 1879, ante, p. 192.

10. Saving for the recovery of poor rates, etc.] Nothing in this Act shall alter the procedure for the recovery of or any remedy for the non-payment of any poor rate, or of any rate or sum the payment of which is not adjudged by the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction.

In R. v. Lord Mayor of London and Brown, 52 J. P. 70; 57 L.T. 491, COLERIDGE, L.C.J., said: "The right to state a case before you

NOTE.

conclusively put the law in operation is no part of the procedure Sect. 10. for enforcing the poor rate." This section, therefore, does not prevent the statement of a case on a question relating to a poor rate. See also Fourth City, etc. v. East Ham Churchwardens, ante, p. 187.

The procedure under 12 & 13 Vict. c. 14, for enforcing payment of poor rates is not affected by the S. J. Acts, and is expressly reserved by this section. See In re Elizabeth Allen, [1894] 2 Q. B. 924; 59 J. P. 229; 63 L. J. M. C. 267.

11. Recovery of payments certified by district auditors.] The payment of any sum certified by a district auditor to be due in accordance with the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 101), and the Acts amending the same, or with any other Act may, together with the costs of the proceedings for the recovery thereof, be enforced in like manner as if it were a sum due in respect of the poor rate.

By the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 101), s. 32, the certified sums were to be recovered in the same manner as penalties and forfeitures may be recovered under the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834 (4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76). See ss. 92, 99, 101, and 103).

In 49 J. P. 29, it is stated to be the opinion of the learned editors that a complaint under the Act referred to in this section may be sent to justices without the auditor's personal attendance.

12. Effect of forms.] [Recital of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, 8. 29.]

A form authorised by any rules for the time being in force in pursuance of the said section shall be of the same. effect as if it were contained in the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 43), or in any other Act to which the form is made applicable.

See the Rules and Consolidated Forms of 1886, post, made and issued under this section, which came into force on January 1st, 1887. Where the authorised forms are not followed, what has been stated as to form and contents of information (see s. 10 of S. J. Act, 1848, and notes thereon, ante, pp. 46 et seq.), requisites of convictions (ante, pp. 93 et seq.) and warrants of commitment (ante, pp. 98 and 102) should be referred to.

SCHEDULE.

[This Schedule contains a large number of statutes hereby repealed. The Schedule itself was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 22).]

RULES AND SCHEDULE OF FORMS.

(Cited as "The Summary Jurisdiction Rules, and Consolidated Forms, 1886," or "the S. J. Rules," etc.).

Made by the LORD CHANCELLOR, and coming into operation on the 1st day of January, 1887.