Law Reform (Limitation of Actions, &c.) Act 1954
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1954 c. 36 |
| Year | 1954 |
Law Reform (Limination of Actions, &c.) Act , 1954
(2 & 3 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 36
An Act to assimilate, in certain respects and subject to certain exceptions and special provisions, the law applicable to proceedings against public authorities (including the Crown) and persons acting in pursuance or execution or intended execution of enactments to that applicable in other cases; to amend the law as to the time limited for bringing legal proceedings and as to the survival of causes of action against the estates of deceased persons; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
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 Repeal of Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893, and other enactments.
1. The following enactments (being enactments providing special periods of limitation for, or other privileges for the defendants in, legal proceedings against public authorities or persons acting in pursuance or execution or intended execution of Acts), that is to say—
are hereby repealed.
2 Amendment of Limitation Act, 1939, as respects personal injury actions.
(1) At the end of subsection (1) of section two of the Limitation Act, 1939 (which subsection provides, amongst other things, that there shall be a limitation period of six years for actions founded on simple contract or on tort) the following proviso shall be inserted—
(1)‘Provided that, in the case of actions for damages for negligence, nuisance or breach of duty (whether the duty exists by virtue of a contract or of provision made by or under a statute or independently of any contract or any such provision) where the damages claimed by the plaintiff for the negligence, nuisance or breach of duty consist of or include damages in respect of personal injuries to any person, this subsection shall have effect as if for the reference to six years there were substituted a reference to three years.’
(2) At the end of section twenty-two of the Limitation Act, 1939 (which, in certain cases where the person to whom a right of action has accrued was under a disability, extends the period of limitation until six years from the date when the disability ceased or the person died, whichever event first occurred) there shall be added the following subsection—
(2) In the case of actions for damages for negligence, nuisance or breach of duty (whether the duty exists by virtue of a contract or of provision made by or under a statute or independently of any contract or any such provision) where the damages claimed by the plaintiff for the negligence, nuisance or breach of duty consist of or include damages in respect of personal injuries to any person,—
(a ) the preceding provisions of this section shall have effect as if for the words 'six years' there were substituted the words 'three years'; and
(b ) this section shall not apply unless the plaintiff proves that the person under the disability was not, at the time when the right of action accrued to him, in the custody of a parent.’
(3) In subsection (1) of section thirty-one of the Limitation Act, 1939, after the definitions of ‘personal estate’ and ‘personal property’ there shall be inserted the following definition—
‘'personal injuries' includes any disease and any impairment of a person's physical or mental condition’.
3 Amendment of Fatal Accidents Act, 1846.
3. In section three of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1846 (which provides that actions under that Act shall be commenced within twelve calendar months after the death of the deceased person) for the words ‘twelve calendar months’ there shall be substituted the words ‘three years’.
4 Amendment as to proceedings on causes of actionsurviving against estates of deceased persons.
4. In section one of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1934 (which provides, amongst other things, for the survival, with certain exceptions, of all causes of action against a deceased person's estate), so much of subsection (3) as provides that proceedings in respect of causes of action in tort which by virtue of that section survive against the estate of a deceased person are not to be maintainable unless the cause of action arose not earlier than six months before the death of the deceased is hereby repealed.
5 Application to the Crown.
(1) This Act shall bind the Crown.
(2) Section eight of the Maritime Conventions Act, 1911 (which relates to the limitation of actions in respect of damage or loss caused to or by vessels and the limitation of actions in respect of salvage services) shall apply in the case of all Her Majesty's ships as it applies in the case of other ships, and accordingly, in subsection (1) of section thirty of the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, the words ‘except in the case of proceedings in respect of any alleged fault of a ship of war or a ship for the time being appropriated to the service of the armed forces of the Crown or to the service of the Post Office’ are hereby repealed.
(3) No proceedings shall lie against the Crown under subsection (2) of section nine of the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947 (which authorises the taking of proceedings against the Crown in respect of loss of or damage to registered inland postal packets) unless the proceedings are begun within the twelve months beginning with the date on which the packet in question was posted.
(4) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland, the references therein to subsection (1) of section thirty and subsection (2) of section nine of the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, shall be construed as references to those subsections as they apply in Northern Ireland in relation to Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom.
6 Further provisions as to limitation of actions in Scotland.
(1) No action of damages where the damages claimed consist of or include damages or solatium in respect of personal injuries to any person shall be brought in Scotland against any person unless it is commenced—
(a ) in...
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