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judgments a preference to such conveyance, under the statute of Frauds, 10 Car., 1 Stat., 2 c., 3 Ir., would be deemed void against purchasers for money, or other good consideration.

ceived any of the proceeds of the estate, in discharge of their demands, can be considered within the meaning of the rule in question, as "creditors by judgment or recognizance in possession of the land or property the subject of the suit."

The 6th section gives decrees and orders of the Court of Chancery, and of the Equity Exchequer; In practice, we believe, it is usual to make such and rules of the courts of common law; and all persons parties to the suit, and, perhaps, in the orders of the Lord Chancellor, or Master of the absence of judicial authority, it is the safer course Rolls; or of the Court of Commissioners of Bank--the inconvenience accruing from payment of ruptcy; or of the Lord Chancellor in matters of their costs, if they should be held to be unnecesLunacy, to be made after the 31st of December, sary parties, being less than that arising from their 1849, the same efficacy as judgments entered after absence, if necessary. Following the analogy of that date will have by virtue of this act. the law and practice of Elegits, for which the reThe 7th section gives the same force to judg-ceiver, under the statutes mentioned, is substituted, ments of the inferior courts removed to the superior, the better opinion would appear to be that until the as the last section gives decrees and orders, &c. creditor receives a payment on foot of his demand, The 8th section gives the power of framing new he is not in possession within the meaning of the writs. order, except he is either the creditor appointing the receiver and having a priority, who, in that case, must be taken to be in possession from the completion of the appointment of the receiver, or having originally extended the receiver, is the next in order to be paid, the demand of the prior creditor being satisfied, and the creditor accounted with by the receiver. In these cases the receiver being in perception of the rents for the benefit of the creditor it must be taken to be his possession though no money be actually paid him.

Looking at the general frame and policy of this bill, with the exceptions stated, we think this is one of a class of measures which have been introduced without due consideration. That portion of it which takes away the power of appointing a receiver and re-introducing the exploded system of elegits, and the taking possession of the debtor's lands subject to an account in a court of law, we consider mischievous in the extreme. It is a recurrence to a bad system, fraught with the most extensive national evils. We hope the Irish Members will make a stand against the Bill. They will deserve the greatest censure, if it does not meet with a reasoning, well-considered, but most determined opposition.

The measure before us is sweeping, and will be received with great alarm by every professional man and every judgment creditor in Ireland.

THE 21st general order of the Court of Chancery, 1848, directs, "That when the plaintiff shall make a party to the suit, any person against whom no account, judgment, conveyance, or other direct relief is sought; or any person having a demand founded upon a recognizance or judgment, who shall not be in possession of the land or property, the subject of the suit, or some part thereof, and shall require such party to appear and answer the bill, the costs so incurred shall be paid by the plaintiff, &c."

If a suit be instituted in a court of Equity, and the land, the subject of the suit, be liable to more than one judgment debt, and the owner of oneprior to the filing of the bill-have appointed a receiver by petition under the 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 55, and the 3 & 4 Vic. c. 105, over the whole or a portion of the land, and though the receiver be in the actual receipt of the rents and profits, and the subsequent creditors have extended that receiver to their own judgments, a question may arise as to whether the subsequent creditors, not having re

• The analogous rule is the 9th of the Equity Exchequer orders, 1844.

Before the passing of the 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 55, generally known as the Sheriff's act, if a judgment creditor issued an elegit, and went into possession, and

another creditor of the same nature issued a second

elegit, he could not get possession of the moiety already extended; if his judgment were of the same term as the first, the sheriff would give him the other moiety; if not, a moiety of that moiety (Cro. El. 481), that is, a fourth of the whole. And if the whole of the lands of the debtor, by two elegits of the same term, or by successive ones of different

terms, were to come into the possession of creditors, sheriff would return to any subsequent elegit, “no no other creditor could go into possession, as the lands," (Imp. office of Sheriff, tit. Ex. Elegit.) And since the passing of the 3 & 4 Vic. c. 105, sec. 21, the debtor's bonds, no subsequent creditor could get possession till the first were paid off.

which enables the creditor to extend the entire of

The 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 55, sec. 31, enacts, that any person entitled to sue out, or who has already sued out a writ of elegit, upon any judgment in any of the superior courts of law, &c., may apply by petition to the Court of Chancery, or to the Court of Equity Exchequer, for an order that a receiver may be appointed of the rents and profits of all lands, tenements, and hereditaments which he would be entitled to have extended or appraised under a writ of elegit. This enactment plainly substitutes the receiver for the elegit. The creditor must not only be in a position, with respect to his legal proceedings, to issue an elegit, but he can have his receiver over such property alone, as he could have extended under an elegit; and on examination of the multifarious cases on the appointment of receivers under this act, the courts will be found to have acted strictly in accordance with the decisions in elegit matters. The

subsequent act, 3 & 4 Vic. c. 105, s. 19, extended the jurisdiction of the court enabling them to appoint receivers over property which, neither under the former act, nor by elegit could the creditor reach. With this exception neither the 5 & 6 W. 5, nor the 3 & 4 Vic. alter in any way the nature of the receiver's position as the mere representative of an elegit creditor in possession, and when extended by a second creditor, who could not get possession in consequence of the possession of a prior creditor, he was in the same position as if the second creditor, having kept his elegit alive by continued returns, until the first being paid off, the sheriff was enabled to give him possession. So, under the provisions of these acts, a continuing sta tutable right to go into possession by each creditor who might extend him to his demand according to his priority, is vested in the receiver; and the inclination of the authorities appears to be in this direction. In Morrogh v. Hoare, (5 I. E. R. 195,)

it was decided that where there was a fund in court, or in the hands of a receiver appointed at the instance of a judgment creditor, it should be treated as if it had been realized by the judgment creditor himself when in possession under an elegit, and that it consequently should be paid to him, notwithstanding a claim by a prior specific incumbrancer. And in Hanley v. Langford, (5 L. Rec. 2 S. 203,) the court-where it appeared on the face of the bill that the judgment creditor had proceeded by petition for a receiver, but was disappointed in recovering his demand, in consequence of objections raised, and that the whole demand was still due-expressed an opinion that it need not be averred that he had issued an elegit; such proceeding being equivalent to the issuing execution at law-Mr. Baron Foster observing, that "the creditor was in the same situation as if he had issued execution, and there were a return of nulla bona. The court had, in fact, told him there were nulla bona.”

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21st June, 1849.

A BILL TO AMEND THE LAW CON-
CERNING JUDGMENTS IN IRELAND.*
Note. The words printed in Italics are proposed to be

inserted in the committee.

"remedies of creditors against the property of "debtors, and for the further amendment of the "law, and the better advancement of justice in "Ireland," it was enacted that it should be lawful

for the sheriff or other officer to whom any writ of elegit, or any precept in pursuance thereof, should be directed at the suit of any person upon any Whereas an act of the Parliament of Ireland was passed in the ninth year of King George the Second, judgment which, at the time appointed for the comintituled an act for the more effectual assigning of mencement of that act should have been recovered, judgments, and for the more speedy recovery of or should be thereafter recovered in any action in rents by distress :' and an act of the Parliament of any of Her Majesty's superior courts at Dublin, to Ireland was passed in the twenty-fifth year of King behalf suing of all such lands, tenements, rectories, make and deliver execution unto the party in that George the Second, intituled an act to explain and tithes, rents, and hereditaments including lands amend an act passed in the ninth year of the reign and hereditaments, which might be of copyhold of his present Majesty, intituled "an act for the ⚫ more effectual assignment of judgments, and for tenure, as the person against whom execution the more speedy recovery of rents by distress," so should have been seized or possessed of at the time was so sued, or any person in trust for him far as the said act relates to the assignment of judgments and statutes, and to prevent great in- afterwards, or over which such person should, at of entering up the said judgment, or at any time conveniences that frequently happen to the suitors the time of entering up such judgment, or at any of the Court of Chancery by the death or removal time afterwads, have any disposing power which of a six clerk or six clerks of the said court, and he might, without the assent of any other person, to enable grand juries to make presentments for exercise for his own benefit, in like manner as the the clerks of the crown and peace: and whereas sheriff or other officer might then make and deliver by an act passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty King William the Fourth, intituled of any person against whom a writ of elegit was execution of one moiety of the lands and tenements an act for facilitating the appointment of sheriffs sued out, which lands, tenements, rectories, tithes, in Ireland, and the more effectual audit and pass-rents, and hereditaments by force and virtue of such ing of their accounts; and for the more speedy return and recovery of fines, fees, forfeitures, re⚫cognizances, penalties, and deodands; to and abolish certain offices in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland; and to amend the laws relating to grants in custodiam and recovery of debts in Ireland; and to amend an act of the second and third years of His present Majesty, for transferring the powers and duties of the commissioners of public accounts 'in Ireland to the commissioners for auditing the public accounts of Great Britain,' it was enacted, that it should be lawful for any person entitled to sue out or who had already sued out a writ of elegit upon any judgment recovered in any of His Majesty's

execution should accordingly be held and enjoyed made and delivered, subject to such account in the by the party to whom such execution should be so court out of which such execution should have been sued out as a tenant by elegit was then subject to in a court of equity; and it was enacted, that it should be lawful for any person entitled to sue out or who had already sued out a writ of elegit upon any judgment recovered in any of Her Majesty's courts at Dublin, or to issue, or who had issued execution in any suit or proceeding on any recogni Chancery, or to the Court of Exchequer at the zance there, to apply by petition to the Court of equity side thereof, for an order that a receiver tories, tithes, annuities, rents, or hereditaments by might be appointed over any lands, tenements, recthat act made liable to be seized, extended, appraised, or taken in execution on any such judgthe passing of that act over the property of any ment, or to order that any receiver appointed before judgment debtor might be extended to the matter of such new petition, and that in proceeding under the said act of the sixth year of King William the Fourth and the act now in recital the said court of Chancery and court of Exchequer at the equity side thereof should have power to appoint or extend a receiver in a summary way, on a petition at the instance of such person, over any property of such judgment debtor which such creditor would or could make available for the payment of his judgment debt by filing (after a writ of execution had been issued and returned at law upon such judgment) a bill in a court of equity, or by any writ of execution at law, or (subject to the proviso therein-after contained) by petition under the provisions of the act now in recital, and it should be lawful for the said courts respectively to appoint or extend a receiver

courts at Dublin, or to issue or who had issued execution in any suit or proceeding on any recognizance there, to apply by petition to the Court of Chancery, or to the Court of Exchequer at the Equity side thereof, for an order that a receiver might be appointed of the rents and profits of the entire, and not of a moiety only, of all lands, tenements, or hereditaments which he would be entitled to have extended or appraised under a writ of elegit, or extended, seized, or taken under a writ of levari facias, or other proceeding on such recognizance, or to have a receiver thereof appointed by that court extended to that matter, and it should be lawful for the court to appoint or extend a receiver accordingly over the whole thereof, or over so much thereof as should appear to it sufficient for the purposes of paying the sum due on such judgment or recognizance: and whereas by an act passed in the fourth year of Her Majesty's Reign, intituled "An "act for abolishing arrest on mesne process in civil "actions, except in certain cases, for extending the

* Prepared and brought in by Mr. Solicitor General, Lord John Russell, and Sir William Somerville.

III. And be it enacted, that any creditor under a judgment entered up as aforesaid after the said 31st day of December, 1849, on which a writ of eligit has been sued out, shall have the same rights and remedies in equity, upon and in respect of such lands, tenements, and hereditaments as might under this act be delivered in execution under such elegit, as such creditor might have had in respect of the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, or moiety of lands, tenements, and hereditaments, which might have been delivered in execution under a writ of elegit in case the provisions hereby repealed of the said acts of the sixth year of King William IV, and of the fourth year of her Majesty had not been enacted.

accordingly over the whole thereof, or over so much rents and hereditameuts, only (including lands and thereof, as should appear to be sufficient for the hereditaments which may be of copyhold tenure) purposes of paying the sum due on such judgment as the person against whom execution is so sued, or recognizance: and it was enacted, that judg- or any person in trust for him, is seized or posment already entered up, or to be thereafter en- sessed of, at the time when such writ of elegit is tered up, against any person in any of her Majes- delivered to the sheriff or other officer to be executy's superior courts at Dublin, should operate as a ted, or over which the person against whom execharge upon all lands, tenements, rectories, advow-cution is so sued has, at the time when such writ of sons, tithes, rents, and hereditaments, including elegit is delivered as aforesaid, any disposing power lands and hereditaments of copyhold tenure, of or which he might, without the assent of any other to which such person should at the time of entering person, exercise for his own benefit, which lands, up such judgment, or at any time afterwards, be tenements, rectories, tithes, rents and hereditaments seized possessed, or entitled for any estate or inter- by force and virtue of such execution shall accordest whatever at law or in equity, whether in pos-ingly be held and enjoyed by the party to whom session, reversion, remainder, or expectancy, or such execution shall be so made and delivered, subover which such person should at the time of enter-ject to such account in the court out of which such ing up such judgment, or at any time afterwards, execution shall have been sued out, as a party to have any disposing power which he might without whom execution is made and delivered under the the assent of any other person exercise for his own provision hereby repealed of the said act of the benefit, and should be binding as against the per- fourth year of Her Majesty, is made subject to unson against whom judgment should be so entered der such provision. up, and against all persons claiming under him after such judgment, and should also be binding as against the issue of his body, and all other persons whom he might, without the assent of any other person, cut off and debar from any remainder, reversion, or other interest in or out of any of the said lands, tenements, rectories, advowsons, tithes, rents, and hereditaments, and that every judgment creditor should have such and the same remedies in a court of equity against the hereditaments so charged by virtue of that act, or any part thereof, as he would be entitled to in case the person against whom such judgment should have been so entered up, had power to charge the same hereditaments and had, by writing under his hand, agreed to charge the same with the amount of such judgment debt and interest thereon, subject to the provisoes in such act contained; and by the lastly-recited act the effect of judgments in the superior courts of common law was given to certain decrees, orders, and rules for payment of monies, costs, charges, and expenses : and whereas, it is expedient to amend the law concerning judgments in Ireland: 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, that from and after the 31st day of December, 1849, all the provisions of the said acts of the 9th and 25th years of King George the Second, relating to judgments, statutes staple, and statutes merchant, and the recited provisions of the said acts of the sixth year of King William the Fourth, and the 4th year of Her Majesty, shall be repealed, save so far as respects judgments entered up, recognizances entered into, and decrees, orders, and rules made on or before the said 31st day of December, 1849.

II. And be it enacted, that the sheriff or other officer to whom any writ of elegit, or any precept in pursuance thereof, is directed at the suit of any person upon any judgment entered up after the 31st day of December, 1849, in any action in any of Her Majesty's superior courts at Dublin, shall make and deliver execution unto the party in that behalf suing of all such lands, tenements, rectories, tithes,

IV. And be it enacted, that in the administration in courts of Equity of the assets of any person against whom any judgment may be entered up as aforesaid, who shall die seised of or entitled to any estate or interest in lands, tenements, or heredita. ments, the judgment creditor shall under such judgment have the same rights upon and in respect of such lands, tenements, and hereditaments as if this act had not been passed.

V. Provided always, and be it enacted, that every conveyance and other act whatsoever of and concerning lands, tenements, or hereditaments which under an act of the Parliament of Ireland passed in the tenth year of King Charles I, intituled "An act against covenous and fraudulent conveyances," would be deemed void against purchasers for money or other good consideration, shall be void as against any judgment creditor whose judgment shall have been entered up before such conveyance or other act, and the like execution and other remedies may be had under such judgment in respect of such lands, tenements, and hereditaments as if such conveyance or other act had not been made or done: provided also, that nothing herein contained shall in anywise affect the provisions of the same act concerning conveyances and other acts had or made to the intent to delay, hinder, or defraud creditors.

VI. And be it enacted, that all decrees and orders of the Court of Chancery, and of the Court of Exchequer at the Equity side thereof, and all rules of

land.

CAP. CXXXIII.

Sec. 1. So much of 7 & 8 Vic. c. 83, as relates to limiting
Responsibility of Tructees of Savings Banks in
Ireland repealed.

2. Power to Trustees and Managers to limit their Re-
sponsibility.

any of the superior courts of Common Law, and all orders of the Lord Chancellor or Master of the Rolls or of the Court of Commissioners of Bankruptcy, Anact to amend the laws relating to Savings Banks in Ire[5th September, 1848.] and all orders of the Lord Chancellor in matters of Lunacy, to which the effect of judgments in the superior courts of common law was given by the said act of the fourth year of her Majesty, shall, where such decrees, orders and rules respectively shall be made after the said 31st day of December, 1849, have the effect of judgments in the superior courts of common law entered up after the said 31st day of December, 1849, and the persons to whom any monies, costs, charges, and expenses are by such decrees, orders and rules respectively directed to be paid, shall have the remedies to which judgment creditors under judgments so entered up will have and be entitled to.

VII. And be it enacted, that any judgment, rule, or order of any inferior court of record, which, after the 31st day of December 1849, shall, under the provisions of the said act of the fourth year of Her Majesty, be removed into any of Her Majesty's superior courts of record at Dublin, shall have no further force or effect than a judgment recovered in or a rule or order made by, such superior court after the said 31st day of December, 1849; but, save as aforesaid, any judgment, rule, or order so removed shall be subject to the provisions of such last-mentioned act in relation to judgments, rules, or orders removed into any of such superior courts. VIII. And be it enacted, that such new or altered writs shall be sued out of the courts of law and equity, and court of commissioners of bankrupt, as may by such courts respectively be deemed necessary or expedient for giving effect to the provisions herein-before contained, and in such forms as the judges of such courts respectively, shall, from time to time think fit to order, and the execution of such writs shall be enforced in such and the same manner as the execution of writs of execution is now enforced, or as near thereto as the circumstances of the case will admit, and that any existing writ, the form of which shall be in any manner altered in pursuance of this act shall, nevertheless, be of the same force and virtue as if no alteration had been made therein, except so far as the effect thereof may be varied by this act.

IX. And be it enacted, That this act may be amended or repealed in this present session of Parliament.

(Continued from p. 264.)

CAP. CXXXI.

An act to amend, and continue until the 1st of November, 1849, and to the end of the then next session of parliament, an act to make provision for the treatment of poor persons afflicted with fever in Ireland.

3. Appointment of Auditors.

4.

Depositor's Book to contain Copy of Rules. Duplicate Copy of certified Rules, &c., to be exhibited in Office.

5. Rules to provide for Production and Inspection of Books.

6. No Fee to Barrister in certain Cases.

7. Commissioners may close Account with Savings Banks in certain Cases, and re-open them if they think fit.

8. Term of Act.

9. Act may be amended, &c.

• Whereas it is expedient to amend the laws relating to 'savings banks in Ireland, and to make other and addi'tional provisions respecting such savings banks :' be it enacted, that so much of an act passed in the 7 & 8 Vic. c. 83, as relates to limiting the responsibility of trustees and managers of savings banks in Ireland, except as to any liability incurred or to be incurred before the 20th of November, 1849.

2. That from and after the 20th of November, 1848, any trustee or manager of a savings bank in Ireland who has declared or shall declare, in writing under his hand deposited with the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, that he is willing to be answerable for a specific amount only, such amount being in no case less than one hundred pounds, shall not be liable to make good any deficiency which may thereafter arise in the funds of such savings bank beyond the amount specified in such writing: provided that the trustee and manager of every savings bank in Ireland shall be personally liable for all monies actually received by him on account of or to and for the use of such institution, and not paid over and disposed of in the manner directed by the rules of the institution; and an extract of this provision shall be enrolled as one of the rules of every such savings bank, and printed and affixed in every office or place where deposits are received, with the names and places of residence of the trustees and managers for the time being, and

the amount, if any, to which they have collectively or individually limited their responsibility.

3. That the trustees of each savings bank in Ireland shall, as soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this act, and from time to time in case of a vacancy, appoint an auditor or auditors to audit the accounts of the said institution, as well as to examine and inspect the books of the several depositors; and the said trustees shall, immediately after such appointment, transmit the signature, name, and address of the said auditor or auditors to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt; and the trustees of every sav

ings bank shall cause the annual and other statements required to be transmitted under the acts relating to savings banks to be certified and verified by the auditor or auditors appointed by the said trustees, in addition to the attestation by tiustees and managers now required by the said acts; and shall [5th September, 1848.] also cause a certificate from the said auditor or auditors as

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to the result of his or their examination of such of the depositors books as may have been produced to him or them for examination to be transmitted with the said annual statement to the said commissioners: provided that the trustees of any such savings bank may agree with the trustees of any other savings bank or banks as to the appoinment of a common auditor or auditors; and the auditor or auditors so

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