THE JUDGE'S CHAMBERS

(DESPATCH OF BUSINESS)

ACT.

(30 & 31 VICT. c. 68.)

An Act to provide for the better Despatch of Business in the Chambers of the Judges of the Superior Courts of Common Law. [25th July, 1867.] WHEREAS a great part of the business in the Chambers of the Judges of the three Superior Courts of common law at Westminster might with advantage to the public be disposed of by the masters of the said courts; Be it 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. It shall be lawful for a majority of all the judges of the said courts, which majority shall include the two chief justices or one of the chief justices and the chief baron, from time to time to make and publish general rules for the following purposes; that is to say: (1.) For empowering the masters of the said courts, or some one or more of them, to do any such thing and to transact any such business, and to exercise any such authority and jurisdiction in respect of the same, as by virtue of any statute or custom, or by the rules and practice of the said courts or any of them respectively, are now done, transacted, or exercised by a judge of the said courts sitting at chambers, and as shall be specified in any such rule, except in respect of matters relating to the liberty of the subject:

(2.) For regulating the attendance of the said masters at chambers, the course of practice to be there pursued, and the scale of costs to be there adopted:

(3.) For fixing, with the sanction of the lords commissioners of her Majesty's treasury, the table of fees to be taken in respect of business to be transacted before the said

Rules to be

Court.

Copy to be

sent to the Lord Chan

master at chambers, and for abolishing or altering from time to time (with the like sanction) such table of fees.

Under the powers of this section, R. G. M. T. 1867, post, have been framed. These rules enumerate the classes of cases in which the masters shall not have jurisdiction except by consent, and give them jurisdiction in all other cases. The same fees are ordered to be taken as were taken in respect of the same matter transacted before a judge, and the scale of costs to be allowed is the same.

2. Every rule to be made under this act shall be read in open read aloud in open court in each of the said courts ten clear days at least before the day fixed for such rule coming into operation, and within one month after that day a copy of every such rule shall be transmitted lished in the by the lord chief justice of England to the lord high chancellor, and shall also be published in the London Gazette.

cellor, and

to be pub

London

Gazette.

Rules to be laid before Parliament.

Right of appeal from

master.

3. Every rule to be made under this act shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within one month after the making thereof if Parliament be then sitting, or, if Parliament be not then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the next session of Parliament.

4. Every order or decision made or given under this orders of the act by any master sitting at chambers shall be as valid and binding on all parties concerned as if the same had been made or given before the passing of this act by a judge sitting at chambers: provided always, that it shall be lawful for any person affected by any order or decision of the master forthwith, or within such time as from time to time shall be appointed by any rule or rules to be made under this act, and subject to such conditions as to costs as may be provided under any such rule or rules, to appeal from such decision to a judge sitting at chambers.

Repeal of

of 1 Vict.

c. 30.

The appeal is by summons to be taken out within four days, unless the time be extended (R. G. M. T. 1867, post). The appeal is no stay unless so ordered by a judge or master (Id.)

The costs of the appeal are in the judge's discretion (Id.)

5. So much of the eleventh section of the statute part of s. 11, made and passed in the first year of her present Majesty, chapter thirty, as provides that no appointment of any master shall take place by the lord chief justice or lord chief baron until ten days after the certificate in such clause mentioned shall have been laid before both Houses of Parliament, shall be and the same is hereby repealed.

REGULÆ GENERALES.*

HILARY TERM, 1853.

WHEREAS the practice of the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, in civil actions,† in respect of which the said courts possess a common jurisdiction, has been to a great extent superseded or altered by the Common Law Procedure Act, 1852, and it is expedient that the written rules of practice of the said courts should be consolidated and rendered uniform; it is ordered, that all existing written rules of practice in any of the said courts in regard to such civil actions, save and except as regards any step or proceeding heretofore taken, shall be and the same are hereby annulled, and that the practice to be observed in the said courts with respect to the matters hereafter mentioned shall be as follows; that is to say:

WRIT OF SUMMONS.

1. When a writ of summons is indorsed in the spe- Ante, p. 33. cial form mentioned in sect. 27 of the Common Law Procedure Act, 1852, the following are the amounts which may be indorsed by the plaintiff's attorney or agent upon the writ for costs; and to include mileage:

In actions above 20%.

In town causes £3 8 0 In country or agency

cases (including
mileage)

In actions under 201

£2 14 0 In country or agency

£4 0 0

བ ། ་

cases (including
mileage)

£3 2 0

* These rules were made under the general powers of the Courts and not under the C. L. P. A. 1852, s. 223 (ante, p. 178). They were never laid before Parliament, and therefore they have no operation to alter any statute, as the Pl. R. T. T. 1853 (post), have. Rowberry v. Morgan, 9 Ex. 730; L. J. 23, Ex. 191. Per Willes, arguendo.)

For the cases decided before these rules were made, on the repealed rules of Will. 4, Hil. Term. See Chit. Stat. 3rd ed. vol. iii. p. 795, et seq.

As to quare impedit, see Tolson v. Bishop of Carlisle (3 C. B. 41); Marshall v. Bishop of Exeter (6 C. B. N. S. 716; L. J. 28, C. P. 300); and Carlisle v. Whaley (L. R. 2 H. L. 391).

Unwritten rules of practice remain in force, except so far as inconsistent with the following (Begg v. Forbes, 13 C. B. 604; L. J. 22, C. P. 222).

Ante, p. 35.

Ante, p. 32.

Ante, p. 43.

Where the plaintiff's attorney, at the time of issuing the writ, claims more than the sums fixed as above, the indorsement on the writ of summons in respect of costs shall be as follows:-" Such sum as shall be allowed on taxation for costs." And in case the plaintiff shall be found not entitled to more costs than such fixed sums, or if more than one-sixth sum shall be disallowed, the plaintiff's attorney shall pay the costs of taxation. So if the attorney has indorsed on the writ one of the fixed sums for the costs of judgment, and claims more costs on signing judgment, and on taxation shall be found not entitled to more than such sum, or if more than one-sixth be taken off on taxation, the plaintiff's attorney shall in like manner pay the costs of taxation.

APPEARANCE.

2. If two or more defendants in the same action shall appear by the same attorney and at the same time, the names of all the defendants so appearing shall be inserted in one appearance.

ATTORNEY AND GUARDIAN.

3. An attorney not entering an appearance in pursuance of his undertaking shall be liable to an attach

ment.

4. No attorney shall be changed without the order of a judge.

5. A special admission of prochein amy, or guardian, to prosecute or defend for an infant, shall not be deemed an authority to prosecute or defend in any but the particular action or actions specified.

JOINDER OF PARTIES.

6. Whenever a plaintiff shall amend the writ after notice by the defendant, or a plea in abatement of a nonjoinder by virtue of the Common Law Procedure Act, 1852, s. 36, he shall file a consent in writing of the party or parties whose name or names are to be added, together with an affidavit of the handwriting, and give notice thereof to the defendant, unless the filing of such consent be dispensed with by order of the court or a judge.

PLEADINGS.

7. No side-bar rule for time to declare shall be Ante, p. 56. granted.

8. The defendant shall not be at liberty to waive his plea, or enter a relictá verificatione after a demurrer, without leave of the court or a judge, unless by consent of the plaintiff or his attorney.

See Chit. Prac. 12th ed. vol. ii. pp. 298, 299, and Cooper v. Painter (13 M. & W. 734, n.), and Davidson v. Bohn (5 C. B. 170).

9. In case the time for pleading to any declaration Ante, p. 66. or for answering any pleadings, shall not have expired before the tenth day of August in any year, the party called upon to plead, reply, &c., shall have the same number of days for that purpose after the 24th day of October, as if the declaration or preceding pleading had been delivered or filed on the 24th of October.

10. Where a defendant shall plead a plea of judg- Ante, p. 52. ment recovered, he shall in the margin of such plea state the date of such judgment, and if such judgment shall be in a court of record the number of the roll on which such proceedings are entered, if any; and, in default of his so doing, the plaintiff shall be at liberty to sign judgment as for want of a plea; and in case the same be falsely stated by the defendant, the plaintiff, on producing a certificate from the proper officer or person having the custody of the records or proceedings of the court where such judgment is alleged to have been recovered, that there is no such record or entry of a judgment as therein stated, shall be at liberty to sign judgment as for want of a plea.

This rule applies only to the once well-known and usual plea of judgment recovered by the plaintiff against the defendant for the same demand (Brokenshir v. Monger, 11 M. & W. 111, per Parke, B.) It was held not to apply to a plea, that the plaintiff had set up his claim as a set-off in a former action, and had then failed (Id.); nor to a plea by an administrator of an outstanding judgment and no assets præter (Power v. Izod, Administrator, Ĭ Bing. N. C. 304).

PAYMENT OF MONEY INTO Court.

11. No affidavit shall be necessary to verify the Ante, p. plaintiff's signature to the written authority to his attorney to take money out of court, unless specially required by the Master.

75.