Enemy Property Act 1953
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1953 c. 52 |
| Year | 1953 |
Enemy Property Act , 1953
(1 & 2 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 52
An Act to make provision as respects things done, in relation to enemy property or property treated as enemy property, in excess of the powers conferred by the law relating to trading with the enemy, and as respects income from moneys invested by custodians of enemy property; as respects copyrights, rights in inventions and designs, and other rights in or in connection with which German enemy interests subsisted, or were properly treated as subsisting, during the period of the war with Germany, as respects property allocated by way of reparation from Germany and as respects other property seized from Germany; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[29th October 1953]
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:—
Part I
Treated as Enemy PropertyGeneral Provisions as to Enemy Property and Property
1 Circumstances in which ss. 2 and 3 are to apply.
(1) The two next following sections shall have effect as respects the making or withholding of payments as therein mentioned, and as respects other dealings with property as therein mentioned, at a time within the period beginning with the third day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine and ending with the passing of this Act, where the payment was so made or withheld, or the property was so dealt with, either—
(a ) by a competent authority acting in good faith and purporting to act under the Trading with the Enemy Act, 1939 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act of 1939’) or orders made thereunder, or by such an authority acting in good faith and with intent to give effect, so far as practicable, to the purposes of section seven of that Act (which relates to the collection of enemy debts and custody of enemy property) or to prevent that Act from being contravened, or
(b ) by any person acting in good faith and in purported compliance with a restriction or obligation imposed by or under the Act of 1939, or
(c ) by any person acting in good faith and in pursuance of a direction or request given or made by a competent authority purporting to act under the Act of 1939 or orders made thereunder, or given or made by a competent authority acting with such an intent as is mentioned in paragraph (a ) of this subsection.
(2) For the purposes of those sections anything done by a competent authority, or by any person in purported compliance with a restriction or obligation imposed by or under the Act of 1939 or in pursuance of a direction or request of a competent authority, shall be deemed to have been done in good faith unless the contrary is proved.
2 Provisions as to making of certain payments and withholding of payments.
(1) Where at a time within the period mentioned in the foregoing section—
(a ) a payment was made by or on behalf of any person to a competent authority, or
(b ) a payment was withheld (whether by way of refusal or of omission to make the payment) by or on behalf of any person, or
(c ) a payment was made by a competent authority to or for the benefit of a person as being the person who, but for the Act of 1939 or any order made thereunder, would have been entitled thereto,
then, if the payment was made or withheld in the circumstances specified in paragraph (a ), (b ) or (c ) of subsection (1) of the foregoing section, it shall be deemed to have been authorised by the Act of 1939 notwithstanding that apart from this section it was not so authorised, and, in the case of a payment made as mentioned in paragraph (a ) of this subsection, the making thereof shall be deemed to have operated, so far as the amount thereof extended, as a release of the person by or on whose behalf it was made.
(2) Where, in the case of a payment made as mentioned in paragraph (a ) or (c ) of the last foregoing subsection, the payment (apart from that subsection) was not authorised by or under the Act of 1939—
(a ) if the payment was a payment to a competent authority as mentioned in the said paragraph (a ), nothing in that subsection shall be construed as preventing that authority from paying the amount thereof, or any part of that amount, to or for the benefit of any person to or for whose benefit the amount or part could lawfully have been paid apart from this section;
(b ) if the payment was a payment by a competent authority as mentioned in the said paragraph (c ), nothing in that subsection shall prevent that authority from exercising any right of recovery in respect of the payment, being a right exercisable apart from this section.
3 Provisions as to other dealings with property.
(1) Where at a time within the period mentioned in section one of this Act any property was dealt with in any way other than the making or withholding of a payment as mentioned in the last foregoing section, and, whether by reason that the property was not enemy property at that time or for any other reason, the person who so dealt with the property was not empowered, as against all persons interested in the property, to deal with it in that way, then, if the property was so dealt with in the circumstances specified in paragraph (a ), (b ) or (c of section one of this Act, the person who so dealt with it shall be deemed, as against all persons interested therein, to have been empowered by the Act of 1939 to deal with it in that way:
Provided that in a case falling within either of the two next following subsections the property shall not be deemed to have vested in the transferee otherwise than as mentioned in those subsections.
(2) If the dealing in question purported to be a transfer of the property on a sale thereof, the property shall be deemed to have vested in the transferee in accordance with the terms of the purported transfer, subject however to any incumbrances to which it would have been subject in his hands if it had then been lawfully transferred to him in those terms on a sale by the person entitled to the property.
(3) If the dealing purported to be a transfer of the property by a custodian to or for the benefit of a person as being the person who, but for the Act of 1939 or any order made thereunder, would have been entitled thereto, subsection (1) of this section shall have effect subject to the provisions of subsection (5) thereof; but subject to the said subsection (5) the property shall be deemed to have vested in the transferee as mentioned in the last foregoing subsection.
(4) If at the time of the dealing the property was not enemy property—
(a ) nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section or in subsection (3) of section seven of the Act of 1939 (which subsection validated certain dealings with property erroneously treated as enemy property) shall operate in relation to that dealing so as to prevent a person from recovering the property or any proceeds thereof from a competent authority who for the time being has the property or proceeds in his possession or under his control, and
(b ) nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall defeat any right of recovering the property or any proceeds thereof from an administrator of enemy property, being a right exercisable in accordance with any of the post-war enactments relating to enemy property.
(5) Where the dealing was one falling within subsection (3) of this section, nothing in that subsection or in subsection (1) of this section shall affect any right of recovery from the transferee of property remaining vested in him, or of recovery from the transferee or his personal representatives of damages in respect of any dealing with the property, being a right which would be exercisable apart from this section; and if immediately before the dealing there subsisted in respect of the property a trust of which the person to or for whose benefit the transfer purported to be made was a trustee, nothing in the said subsection (1) or subsection (3) shall be construed as affecting that trust or any right or interest thereunder.
(6) If at the time of the dealing the property was enemy property, and in consequence of the dealing the property or any proceeds thereof came into the possession or under the control of a custodian, then for the purposes of the post-war enactments relating to enemy property the property or proceeds shall be deemed thereupon to have become vested in the custodian by virtue of section seven of the Act of 1939, and to have continued to be so vested while remaining in his possession or under his control.
4 Income from moneys invested by custodian.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, any income received by a custodian from the investment of moneys coming into his hands (whether in pursuance of the Act of 1939 or otherwise) in his capacity as custodian, being income received by way of discount on the purchase by him of Treasury Bills or by way of interest on other loans made by him to the Treasury or on moneys placed by him in his name on deposit or current account at a bank, shall belong to the Crown and be paid into the Exchequer.
(2) The last foregoing subsection shall be deemed to have had effect as from the coming into operation of the Trading with the Enemy (Custodian) Order, 1939, so however that it shall not be construed as authorising or requiring the repayment of any sums paid by a custodian before the passing of this Act...
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