Limitation (Enemies and War Prisoners) Act 1945

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1945 c. 16
Year1945


Limitation (Enemies and War Prisoners) Act, 1945

(8 & 9 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 16.

An Act to provide for suspending the operation of certain statutes of limitation in relation to proceedings affecting persons who have been enemies or have been detained in enemy territory.

[28th March 1945]

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:—

S-1 Suspension of limitation period where party was an enemy or detained in enemy territory.

1 Suspension of limitation period where party was an enemy or detained in enemy territory.

(1) If at any time before the expiration of the period prescribed by any statute of limitation for the bringing of any action any person who would have been a necessary party to that action if it had then been brought was an enemy or was detained in enemy territory, the said period shall be deemed not to have run while the said person was an enemy or was so detained, and shall in no case expire before the end of twelve months from the date when he ceased to be an enemy or to be so detained, or from the date of the passing of this Act, whichever is the later:

Provided that, where any person was only an enemy as respects a business carried on in enemy territory, this section shall only apply, so far as that person is concerned, to actions arising in the course of that business.

(2) If it is proved in any action that any person was resident or carried on business or was detained in enemy territory at any time, he shall for the purposes of this Act be presumed to have continued to be resident or to carry on business or to be detained, as the case may be, in that territory until it ceased to be enemy territory, unless it is proved that he ceased to be resident or to carry on business or to be detained in that territory at an earlier date.

(3) If two or more periods have occurred in which any person who would have been such a necessary party as aforesaid was an enemy or was detained in enemy territory, those periods shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as one continuous such period beginning with the beginning of the first period and ending with the end of the last period.

S-2 Interpretation.

2 Interpretation.

(1) In this Act the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say:—

‘action’ means civil proceedings before any court or tribunal and includes arbitration proceedings;

‘enemy’ means any person who is, or is deemed to be, an enemy for any of the purposes of the Trading with the Enemy Act, 1939 , except that in ascertaining whether a person is such an enemy the expression ‘enemy territory’ in section two of the said Act shall have the meaning assigned to that expression by this section;

‘enemy territory’ means:—

(a ) any area which is enemy territory as defined by subsection (1) of section fifteen of the Trading with the Enemy Act, 1939;

(b ) any area in relation to which the provisions of the said Act apply, by virtue of an order made under subsection (1A) of the said section fifteen, as they apply in relation to enemy territory as so defined; and

(c ) any area which, by virtue of Regulation six or Regulation seven of the Defence (Trading with the Enemy) Regulations, 1940, or any order made thereunder, is treated for any of the purposes of the said Act as enemy territory as so defined or such territory as is referred to in the last foregoing paragraph;

‘statute of limitation’ means any of the following enactments, that is to say,—

the Limitation Act, 1939,

section three of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1846,

section four of the Employers' Liability Act, 1880,

section ten of the Copyright Act, 1911,

section eight of the Maritime Conventions Act, 1911,

Rule 6 of Article III of the Schedule to the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1924,

subsection (1) of section thirteen of the Moneylenders Act, 1927,

Article 29 of the First Schedule to the Carriage by Air Act, 1932,

section one of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1934,

subsection (1) of section seven of the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937.

(2) References in this Act to any person who would have been a necessary party to an action shall be construed as including references to...

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