[27 & 28 VICT. c. 112.] An Act to amend the Law relating to future Judgments, Statutes, and Recognizances.* [29th July, 1864.] WHEREAS it is desirable to assimilate the law affecting freehold, copy hold, and leasehold estates to that affecting purely personal estates in respect of future judgments, statutes, and recognizances: Therefore 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. No judgment, statute, or recognizance to be entered up after the passing of this act shall affect any land (of whatever tenure) until such land shall have been actually delivered in execution by virtue of a writ of elegit or other lawful authority, in pursuance of such judgment, statute, or recognizance. This section was no doubt, in accordance with the preamble, * This statute does not bind the Crown, as the Crown is not expressly named herein. The priority of future Crown debts as against the lands of the debtor is now regulated by stat. 28 & 29 Vict. c. 104 (The Crown Suits, &c., Act, 1865), which, by section 48, enacts, that "Any judgment, decree, or order obtained after the commencement of this act" (1st of November, 1865), "by or on behalf of the Crown, or any recognizance entered into after the commencement of this act on the proper account of the Crown, or any inquisition finding after the commencement of this act a debt due to the Crown, or any obligation or specialty made after the commencement of this act to the Crown, or any acceptance of office accepted after the commencement of this act from or under the Crown, shall not affect any land (of whatever tenure) as to a bona fide purchaser for valuable consideration or a mortgagee (whether such purchaser or mortgagee have or have not notice of the judgment, decree, order, recognizance, inquisition, obligation, specialty, or acceptance of office), unless a writ of extent or of diem clausit extremum, or other writ or process of execution, in pursuance of or in relation to such judgment, decree, order, recognizance, inquisition, obligation, specialty, or acceptance of office, has been issued and registered before the execution of the conveyance or mortgage to such purchaser or mortgagee, and the payment by him of the purchase or mortgage money.' The 49th section provides for the registration of the writ or process, it is as follows: " "The registration of such writ or process shall be effected as follows: namely, a minute of the name of the person against whom the writ or process is issued, and of the date of the issuing thereof, and of the amount for which it is issued, shall be left with the senior master of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who shall forthwith enter the same particulars in a book by the name in alphabetical order of the person against whom the writ or process is issued; and no other registration of such writ or process, or of the judgment, decree, order, recognizance, inquisition, obligation, specialty, or acceptance of office, in pursuance of or in relation to which it is issued, shall be necessary for any purpose. There shall be paid for every such entry a fee of two shillings and sixpence; and all persons shall be at liberty to search the said book, with the other books in the office, on payment of a fee of one shilling." D. Z Interpreta affords greater protection to land than that given by the former act to chattels, for there is no proviso in this section corresponding to that in the former act, making notice of the writ having been delivered to the sheriff take the case in any way out of the benefit of the enactment. Quære. Whether this section applies to an equity of redemption, inasmuch as it is such an interest as cannot be delivered in execution (Thornton v. Finch, 4 Giff. 505; L. J. 34, Ch. 466; see also 4 Giff. 508, note, and remarks thereon in Williams' Real Property, 7th ed., Addendum, facing p. 1). 2. In the construction of this act the term "judgment" tion of terms. shall be taken to include registered decrees, orders of courts of equity and bankruptcy, and other orders having the operation of a judgment; and the term "land" shall be taken to include all hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, or any interest therein; and the term "debtor" shall be taken to include husbands of married women, assignees of bankrupts, committees of lunatics, and the heirs or devisees of deceased persons. Writs of execution to be registered in manner 23 & 24 Vict. c. 38. 3. Every writ or other process of execution of any such judgment, statute, or recognizance, by virtue whereof any land shall have been actually delivered in execution, shall be prescribed by registered in the manner provided by an act passed in the session of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth years of her present Majesty, intituled "An Act to further amend the Law of Property," but in the name of the debtor against whom such writ or process is issued, instead of, as under the said act, in the name of the creditor; and no other or prior registration of such judgment, statute, or recognizance shall be or be deemed necessary for any purpose; and no reference to any such prior registration shall be required to be made in or by the memorandum or minute of such writ or other process of execution which shall be left with the Senior Master of the Court of Common Pleas for the purpose of such registry. Creditor to whom land delivered in execution entitled to obtain summary order from Court of Chancery for sale. 4. Every creditor to whom any land of his debtor shall have been actually delivered in execution by virtue of any such judgment, statute, or recognizance, and whose writ or other process of execution shall be duly registered, shall be entitled forthwith, or at any time afterwards while the registry of such writ or process shall continue in force, to obtain from the Court of Chancery, upon petition in a summary way, an order for the sale of his debtor's interest in such land, and every such petition may be served upon the debtor only; and thereupon the court shall direct all such inquiries to be made as to the nature and particulars of the debtor's interest in such land, and his title thereto, as shall appear to be necessary or proper; and in making such inquiries, and generally in carrying into effect such order for * Ante, p. 498. sale, the practice of the said court with respect to sales of As might have been expected from the title of the act, this creditors, sale to be served upon them. 5. If it shall appear on making such inquiries that any where there other debt due on any judgment, statute or recognizance, is are other a charge on such land, the creditor entitled to the benefit of notice of such charge (whether prior or subsequent to the charge of the petitioner) shall be served with notice of the said order for sale, and shall after such service be bound thereby, and shall be at liberty to attend the proceedings under the same, and to have the benefit thereof; and the proceeds of such sale shall be distributed among the persons who may be found entitled thereto, according to their respective priorities. It is not easy to see why the words "or subsequent" were in- interest 6. Every person claiming any interest in such land Parties through or under the debtor, by any means subsequent to the claiming delivery of such land in execution as aforesaid, shall be through bound by every such order for sale, and by all the proceedings consequent thereon. 7. This act shall not extend to Ireland. debtor bound by order for Extent of TITLES OF THE STATUTES AND RULES REGULATING THE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE IN THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER, REVENUE SIDE. [22 & 23 VICT. c. 21.] An Act to regulate the Office of Queen's Remembrancer, and to amend the Practice and Procedure on the Revenue Side of the Court of Exchequer. [13th August, 1857.] [28 & 29 VICT. c. 104.] An Act to amend the Procedure and Practice in Crown Suits in the Court of Exchequer, at Westminster, and for other Purposes. [5th July, 1865.] Regulæ Generales, 24 Vict. (1860), 6 H. & N. i. Regulæ Generales, 25 Vict. (1861), 7 H. & N. 505. Regulæ Generales, Michaelmas Term, 27 Vict. (1863),* 2 H. & C. 429; L. J. 33, Ex. 134. Rules regulating the collection of fees by stamps, 18 Dec. 1865. London Gazette, 28th December, 1865; L. J. 35, Com. Law, 23. Regulæ Generales, Easter Term, 1866. Rules of Court for regulating the procedure and practice in suits by English Information. L. R. 1, Ex. 389. Schedule of Fees to be taken by solicitors. Id. 417. These rules having been held invalid (Att.-Gen. v. Sillem, 2 H. & C. 581; L. J. 33, Ex. 134, in Ex. Ch.; 10 H. L. Cas. 704; L. J. 33. Ex. 209, in H. of Lords), The Crown Suits, &c., Act, 1865" (28 & 29 Vict. c. 104), by sect. 35, practically gave them the force of law. STATUTES AND RULES REGULATING THE COLLECTION OF FEES IN THE SUPERIOR [15 & 16 VICT. c. 73.] An Act to make Provision for a permanent Establishment of Officers to perform the Duties at Nisi Prius, in the Superior Courts of Common Law, and for the Payment of such Officers, and of the Judges' Clerks, by Salaries, and to abolish certain Offices in those Courts. [30th June, 1852.] AFTER reciting that the officers in the superior courts of common law who perform the duties at Nisi Prius hold their offices and appointments during pleasure, and that such officers and the clerks at the judges' chambers are remunerated by fees received by them from the suitors, and that it is expedient to provide a permanent establishment of such officers, and that they and the said clerks should be paid by salaries, and that the fees now payable by the suitors should be diminished; it is enacted as follows: By section 1, from and after the 24th day of October after the passing of this act, the offices of marshal and clerk at Nisi Prius in the Court of Queen's Bench, and marshal in the Courts of Common Pleas and Exchequer, are abolished; and all acts, duties, and services heretofore rendered by such marshals and clerk at Nisi Prius respectively shall be done, performed, and rendered by the associates in the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer. By section 2, all the records, books, papers, and documents of and concerning the duties and business of the several offices of the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer, so abolished, shall be delivered by the several officers of the said courts respectively now having the custody of the same, into the custody and possession of the associates in the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer respectively, to be by them kept and preserved; and searches may be made, and copies or extracts of and from the said records, books, papers, and documents shall and may be had and taken, at such times and in such Records, &c. to be transsociates. ferred to as |