COUNTY COURTS ADMIRALTY JURISDICTION AMEND MENT ACT, 1869. 32 & 33 VICT. CAP. 51. 1869. Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with C. C. Act, 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. This Act may be cited as the County Courts Admiralty Juris- Short title. diction Amendment Act, 1869, and shall be read and interpreted as one Act with the County Courts Admiralty Jurisdiction Act, 1868. 2. Any County Court appointed or to be appointed to have Admi- Extension ralty jurisdiction shall have jurisdiction, and all powers and authorities relating thereto, to try and determine the following causes : of jurisdiction over ships and (1.) As to any claim arising out of any agreement made in relation goods. If parties in respect of higher (2.) As to any cause in respect of any such claim or claims as amount may County 3. The jurisdiction conferred by this Act and by the County Courts Proceedings Admiralty Jurisdiction Act, 1868, may be exercised either by pro- in rem or in ceedings in rem or by proceedings in personam. personam. of sec. 3 of 4. The third section of the County Courts Admiralty Jurisdiction Amendment Act, 1868, shall extend and apply to all claims for damage to ships, 31 & 32 Vict. whether by collision or otherwise, when the amount claimed does not c. 71. exceed three hundred pounds. 5. In any Admiralty or maritime cause the Judge may, if he think As to appointment fit, or on the request of either party, be assisted by two mercantile of mercanassessors; and all the provisions of the County Courts Admiralty tile asses Jurisdiction Act, 1868, with reference to nautical assessors, shall sors. apply to the appointment, approval, summoning, and remuneration of such mercantile assessors. assessor of make 6. The assessor of the Court of Passage of the borough of Liver- Power of pool shall have power from time to time to make general rules and Court of orders for regulating the practice and procedure of the Admiralty Passage to and maritime jurisdiction in the said Court, and for other purposes general mentioned in section thirty-five of the County Courts Admiralty rules and Jurisdiction Act, 1868; and any general rules and orders already orders. made or hereafter to be made by the said assessor for any of the purposes aforesaid shall be of full force and effect as if the same had been made under this or the aforesaid Act. Commence 7. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of September ment of Act. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine. C. C. Act, 1875. THE COUNTY COURTS ACT, 1875. 38 & 39 VICT. CAP. 50. 10. There shall be no appeal from a decree or order of the High Court of Admiralty of England made on appeal from the County Court when such decree or order affirms the judgment of the County Court, except by express permission of the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. When upon an appeal the High Court of Admiralty alters the judgment of the County Court no leave to appeal to her Majesty in Council shall be necessary. 11. When an Admiralty cause has been heard in the County Court with the assistance of nautical assessors, elder brethren of the Trinity House shall be summoned to assist on the hearing of an appeal by the High Court of Admiralty, if either party shall require the same and the Judge of the High Court shall be of opinion that the assistance of the elder brethren is necessary or desirable. PART III. VICE-ADMIRALTY COURTS ACT, 1863. 26 & 27 VICT. CAP. 24. Vice-Ad. C. 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the "Vice-Admiralty Act, 1863. Courts Act, 1863." Short title. Interpretation of terms. Saving the powers of the Admi ralty. Jurisdiction "Vice-Admiralty Court" shall mean any of the existing Vice 66 Admiralty Courts enumerated in the schedule marked A hereto annexed, or any Vice-Admiralty Court which shall hereafter be established in any British possession: Ship" shall include every description of vessel used in navigation not propelled by oars only, whether British or foreign: "Cause" shall include any cause, suit, action or other proceeding instituted in any Vice-Admiralty Court. 7. Nothing in this Act contained shall be taken to affect the power of the Admiralty to appoint any Vice-Admiral, or any Judge, registrar, marshal, or other officer of any Vice-Admiralty Court, as heretofore, by warrant from the Admiralty, and by letters patent issued under seal of the High Court of Admiralty of England. 10. The matters in respect of which the Vice-Admiralty Courts shall have jurisdiction are as follow: (1.) Claims for seamen's wages: (2.) Claims for master's wages, and for his disbursements on account of the ship: (3.) Claims in respect of pilotage: (4.) Claims in respect of salvage of any ship, or of life or goods therefrom: (5.) Claims in respect of towage: (6.) Claims for damage done by any ship: (7.) Claims in respect of bottomry or respondentia bonds: Vice-Ad. C. (8.) Claims in respect of any mortgage where the ship has been Act, 1863. sold by a decree of the Vice-Admiralty Court, and the proceeds are under its control: (9.) Claims between the owners of any ship registered in the possession, in which the Court is established, touching the ownership, possession, employment, or earnings of such ship: (10.) Claims for necessaries supplied, in the possession in which the Court is established, to any ship of which no owner or part-owner is domiciled within the possession at the time of the necessaries being supplied: (11.) Claims in respect of the building, equipping, or repairing within any British possession of any ship of which no owner or part-owner is domiciled within the possession at the time of the work being done. Jurisdiction of Vice 11. The Vice-Admiralty Courts shall also have jurisdiction(1.) In all cases of breach of the regulations and instructions Admiralty relating to her Majesty's navy at sea: Courts. restrict tions. (2.) In all matters arising out of droits of Admiralty. 12. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to take away Nothing to or restrict the jurisdiction conferred upon any Vice-Admiralty Court existing by any Act of Parliament in respect of seizures for breach of the jurisdic revenue, customs, trade, or navigation laws, or of the laws relating to the abolition of the slave trade, or to the capture and destruction of pirates and piratical vessels, or any other jurisdiction now lawfully exercised by any such Court, or any jurisdiction now lawfully exercised by any other Court within her Majesty's dominions (a). 13. The jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiralty Courts, except where As to it is expressly confined by this Act to matters arising within the matters arising bepossession in which the Court is established, may be exercised, yond limits whether the cause or right of action has arisen within or beyond of colony. the limits of such possession. to establish 14. Her Majesty may, by order in Council, from time to time Her Majesty establish rules touching the practice to be observed in the Vice- empowered Admiralty Courts, as also tables of the fees to be taken by the and alter officers and practitioners thereof for all acts to be done therein, and rules and may repeal and alter the existing and all future rules and tables of fees. fees, and establish new rules and tables of fees in addition thereto, or in lieu thereof. tables of tables of 15. A copy of any rules or tables of fees which may at any time Rules and be established shall be laid before the House of Commons within fees to be three months from the establishing thereof, or if Parliament shall laid before not be then sitting, or if the session shall terminate within one Commons. month from that date, then within one month after the commencement of the next session. the House of entered in 16. The rules and tables of fees in force in any Vice-Admiralty To be Court shall, as soon as possible after they have been received in the the records British possession in which the Court is established, be entered by of the the registrar in the public books or records of the Court, and the Courts. books or records in which they are so entered shall at all reasonable (a) See Appellate Jurisdiction, 1876, 39 & 40 Vict. c. 59, s. 23. Vice-Ad. C. times be open to the inspection of the practitioners and suitors in the Act, 1863. Court. To be hung 17. A copy of the rules and tables of fees in force in any Viceup in Court, Admiralty Court shall be kept constantly hung up in some conspicuous place as well in the Court as in the office of the registrar. &c. Established fees to be the only fees taken. Taxation may be revised by the High Court of Admiralty. Registrar may ad. minister oaths. As to the hearing of cross causes. No appeal save from final sentence or order. Appeal to be made months. 18. The fees established for any Vice-Admiralty Court shall, after the date fixed for them to come into operation, be the only fees which shall be taken by the officers and practitioners of the Court. 19. Any person who shall feel himself aggrieved by the charges of any of the practitioners in any Vice-Admiralty Court, or by the taxation thereof by the officers of the Court, may apply to the High Court of Admiralty of England to have the charges taxed, or the taxation thereof revised. 20. The registrar of any Vice-Admiralty Court shall have power to administer oaths in relation to any matter depending in the Court; and any person who shall wilfully swear falsely in any proceeding before the registrar, or before any other person authorised to administer oaths in the Court, shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and shall be liable to all the penalties attaching to wilful and corrupt perjury.. 21. If a cause of damage by collision be instituted in any ViceAdmiralty Court, and the defendant institute a cross cause in respect of the same collision, the Judge may, on application of either party, direct both causes to be heard at the same time and on the same evidence; and if the ship of the defendant in one of the causes has been arrested, or security given by him to answer judgment, but the ship of the defendant in the other cause cannot be arrested, and security has not been given to answer judgment therein, the Court may, if it think fit, suspend the proceedings in the former cause until security has been given to answer judgment in the latter cause. 22. The appeal from a decree or order of a Vice-Admiralty Court lies to her Majesty in Council; but no appeal shall be allowed, save by permission of the Judge, from any decree or order not having the force or effect of a definitive sentence or final order. 23. The time for appealing from any decree or order of a Vicewithin six Admiralty Court shall, notwithstanding any existing enactment to the contrary, be limited to six months from the date of the decree or order appealed from; and no appeal shall be allowed where the petition of appeal to her Majesty shall not have been lodged in the registry of the High Court of Admiralty and of appeals within that time, unless her Majesty in Council shall, on the report and recommendation of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, be pleased to allow the appeal to be prosecuted, notwithstanding that the petition of appeal has not been lodged within the time prescribed. Acts re24. The Acts enumerated in the schedule hereto annexed marked pealed. Saving rules B are hereby repealed, to the extent therein mentioned, but the established repeal thereof shall not affect the validity of any rules, orders, regulaunder 2 & 3 tions, or tables of fees heretofore established and now in force, in W. 4, c. 51. pursuance of the Act of the second and third William the Fourth, chapter fifty-one; but such rules, orders, regulations, and tables of fees shall continue in force until repealed or altered under the provisions of this Act. |