Courts (Emergency Powers) Act 1917
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1917 c. 25 |
| Year | 1917 |
Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, 1917.
(7 & 8 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 25.
An Act to amend the Courts (Emergency Powers) Acts, 1914 to 1916, and the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act, 1915, and to grant relief in connexion with the present war from liabilities and disqualifications arising out of certain contracts.
[10th July 1917]
Be it enacted by the King'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 Powers of court to suspend or annul certain contracts,
(1) Where, upon an application by any party to a contract for the construction of any building or work or for the supply of any materials for any building or work entered into before the fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and fourteen, the court is satisfied that, owing to the prevention or restriction of, or the delay in, the supply or delivery of materials, or the diversion or insufficiency of labour, occasioned by the present war, the contract cannot be enforced according to its terms without serious hardship, the court may, after considering all the circumstances of the case and the position of all the parties to the contract and any offer which may have been made by any party for a variation of the contract, suspend or annul the contract or stay any proceedings for the enforcement of the contract or any term thereof or any rights arising thereunder on such conditions (if any) as the court may think fit.
For the purpose of this subsection where an offer made before the fourth day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen was binding on a contracting party if accepted within a specified period expiring after that date and was so accepted after that date, the contract shall be deemed to have been entered into before that date.
(2) Where, upon an application by any party to any contract whatsoever, the court is satisfied that, owing to any restriction or direction imposed or given by or in pursuance of any enactment relating to the defence of the realm or any regulation made thereunder, or owing to the acquisition or user by or on behalf of the Crown for the purposes of the present war of any ship or other property, any term of the contract cannot be enforced without serious hardship, the court may, after considering the circumstances of the case and the position of the parties to the contract and any offer which may have been made by any party for the variation of the contract, suspend or annul the contract or stay any proceedings for the enforcement of the contract or any term thereof or any rights arising thereunder on such conditions (if any) as the court may think fit.
This subsection shall apply to any obligation relating to the supply of water, heat, light, traction or power arising under any Act of Parliament, or order having the force of an Act of Parliament, in like manner as it applies to a contract, except that it shall not be lawful for the court to annul any such obligation.
(3) This section shall be construed as one with the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, 1914 .
2 Relief in respect of certain contractual obligations.
2. Where, by virtue of any contract of tenancy, any person is bound to do or abstain from doing or is under any liability if he abstains from doing or does any act or thing, and by virtue of any enactment, relating to the defence of the realm or any regulation made thereunder the doing of such act or thing is wholly or partially restricted or ordered, he shall not...
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