transferred to a county court. By sect. 100, the gaoler of a prison, situate in a county in which no bankruptcy court holds its sittings, is to make on the first of every month a return to the county court, within the district of which the gaol is situate, of all persons in custody upon any process whatsoever for, or by reason of, any debt, claim or demand; and by sect. 101 the judge is to order the registrar of the court to attend at the gaol to examine, and, if he thinks fit, to adjudge bankrupt, any prisoner named in the gaoler's return, who being a trader shall have been in prison fourteen days, or being a non-trader, two calendar months. INTROD. courts. CAUSES SENT FOR TRIAL BY SUPERIOR COURTS.-In Causes sent actions of contract where the claim does not exceed 501., for trial by superior or is reduced by set-off or otherwise to 50l. or under, the judge of a superior court may, under 19 & 20 Vict. c. 108, s. 26, on terms after issue joined, order the cause to be tried by a county court (k); but now by sect. 7 of 30 & 31 Vict. c. 142, the judge may, before issue joined, unless good cause be shown to the contrary, order the action to be tried in a county court. secution, &c. MALICIOUS PROSECUTION, &c.-By sect. 10 of 30 & Malicious pro31 Vict. c. 142, a judge of a superior court in which an action for malicious prosecution, illegal arrest, illegal distress, assault, false imprisonment, libel, slander, seduction, or any action of tort may be brought, may either stay the proceedings or remit them to a county court, unless the plaintiff give security for costs, or satisfy him that it is a fit action to be tried in the superior court. courts. COMMITMENT ON JUDGMENTS OF SUPERIOR COURTS.- Commitment By 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102, the power given by the 8 & 9 on judgments of superior Vict. c. 127, to the Commissioners of Bankrupts to commit a party to prison brought before them by summons on a judgment of a superior court, where such debt did not exceed 201., and had been contracted by fraud, or in certain other ways, was transferred in places twenty miles beyond London to the county courts. (k) By sects. 3 and 6 of the Common Law Procedure Act, 1854, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 125, a power was given to the superior court to refer cases, which consisted wholly or in part of matter of mere account, to a county INTROD. Equitable jurisdiction Chancery. Companies Act, 1862. Companies Probate and letters of administration. Copyright of designs. EQUITABLE JURISDICTION-CHANCERY.-By sect. 22 of the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95, the judge may be required to perform all such duties relating to causes or matters depending in Chancery, or any judge thereof, or before the Chancellor in the exercise of any authority belonging to him, necessary or proper to be done in the respective districts, as the Chancellor from time to time by a general order directs(7). COMPANIES ACT, 1862.-By sect. 126 of the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 89, the judges of the county courts who sit at places more than twenty miles from the General Post Office are commissioners to take evidence in winding-up cases. For this purpose the judge is invested with the same powers which the Court of Chancery possesses of summoning and examining witnesses, and of requiring the production or delivery of documents. COMPANIES ACT, 1867.-By sect. 41 of 30 & 31 Vict. c. 131, where an order has been made for the winding-up of a company by the Court of Chancery, it may direct all subsequent proceedings to be had in a county court. PROBATE AND LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION.-By sect. 10 of 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95 (m), the contentious jurisdiction of the Court of Probate, established by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77, is given to the county courts where it appears on affidavit to the satisfaction of one of the registrars of the principal registry that the testator or intestate had at the time of his death his fixed place of abode in one of the districts mentioned in Schedule A. of the Court of Probate Act; and that the personal estate in respect of which the probate or letters of administration is sought is under the value of 2007., and that the deceased was not seised or entitled to any real estate, or, if so, that its value is under 3001. COPYRIGHT OF DESIGNS.-By sect. 8 of 21 & 22 Vict. c. 70, the proprietor of copyright in any design under "The Copyright of Designs Act, 1852," or this act, may take proceedings in the county court of the district within (1) This jurisdiction does not appear to have been ever exercised. (m) This jurisdiction was first given by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77, s. 54, now repealed by 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95, s. 11. which the piracy has been committed for the recovery of INTROD. damages sustained by reason of the piracy. PROCESS.-The process of the county court is by plaint Process. and summons; and where no jury is required by either party, the duty of deciding questions both of fact and law is vested in the judge alone, no suitors being summoned as in the old court (n). In cases, however, in which the amount claimed exceeds 57., either party may require a jury to be summoned to try the action. The proceedings in the trial now substantially vary from those adopted in the courts at Westminster in one material exception only, namely, that where there is a judgment for the plaintiff for a sum not exceeding 201., the judge has the power of ordering that the debt or damages recovered shall be paid by instalments. In all other cases he must order the claim to be paid forthwith, or within fourteen clear days, unless the plaintiff consents to receive it by instalments. No judgment or order of a county court, nor any matter pending therein, can be removed except by certiorari (o). By 13 & 14 Vict. c. 61, a power of appeal is, however, given where plaints are brought for causes of action which, but for that statute, the courts could not have entertained; section 14 of that act providing, that, if either party in such a cause is dissatisfied with the determination or direction of the court in point of law, or upon the admission or rejection of evidence, he may appeal to any of the superior courts of common law, two of the puisne judges of which court may decide the point disputed. The ap peal is in the form of a case agreed on by the parties, and if they cannot agree, it is settled by the judge of the county court who heard the plaint. By leave of the judge an appeal may now, under 30 & 31 Vict. c. 142, sect. 13, be allowed in actions in which an appeal was not before allowed; and by the same section an appeal is given in actions of ejectment, and actions in (n) 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95, s. 69. (0) Ib. s. 90. A material alteration, with respect to the removal of plaints, was effected by making the county court a court of record; namely, that all plaints which can be removed into a superior court must now be moved by a writ of certiorari; whereas, when there was no record of the proceed- INTROD. which title comes in question (p). In equitable proceedings an appeal always lies, by sect. 18 of 28 & 29 Vict. c. 99. 66 (p) By sect. 35 of 30 & 31 Vict. c. 142, the decisions of The City of London Court" (formerly the Sheriffs' Court) are made subject to appeal, in the same way and on the same conditions as the decisions of a county court. Before this act, it was held that no appeal lay from a deci sion of the Sheriffs' Court made in the exercise of the equitable jurisdiction conferred upon it by the 28 & 29 Vict. c. 99, s. 4. Harper v. Pole, L. R., 3 Eq. 752; S. C. 36 L. J., Ch. 375; Gardiner v. The Cachir Company, 36 L. J., Ch. 432. PART I. PROCEEDINGS IN PLAINTS. CHAPTER I. DISTRICTS, COURT-HOUSES, GENERAL FUND AND SITTINGS OF Districts]-By 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95, sect. 2, power is Districts. given to the Queen, with the advice of her Privy Council, from time to time to order that the act shall be put in force in such counties as to her Majesty may seem fit; and also to divide the whole or part of any county, &c. into districts, and to order that the county court shall be holden in each of such districts, and from time to time to alter them, and to order that the number of districts shall be increased, until the whole of the county is within the provisions of the act, and to alter the place of holding the court, or to order that the holding of it be discontinued, or to consolidate any two or more districts, and to declare by what name and in what towns and places the courts shall be holden in each district; and if it appear that any part of any county, &c. may conveniently be declared within the jurisdiction of the county court of an adjoining county, to order that such part shall be taken to be within the jurisdiction of the county court for such adjoiuing county in and for such district, in like manner as if it were part of such adjoining county. By Orders in Council of the 9th March, 1847, the whole of England, with the exception of the city of London, was divided into 491 districts, and by subsequent |