Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1875
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875
(38 & 39 Vict.) CHAPTER 77.
An Act to amend and extend the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873.
[11th August 1875]
W HEREAS it is expedient to amend and extend the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873:
Be it therefore 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 Short title, and construction with 36 & 37 Vict. c. 66.
1. This Act shall, so far as is consistent with the tenor thereof, be construed as one with the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873, (in this Act referred to as the principal Act,) and together with the principal Act may be cited as the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts, 1873 and 1875, and this Act may be cited separately as theSupreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875.
2 Commencement of Act.
2. This Act, except any provision thereof which is declared to take effect before the commencement of this Act, shall commence and come into operation on the first day of November 1875.
Sections twenty, twenty-one, and fifty-five of the principal Act shall not commence or come into operation until the first day of November 1876, and until the said sections come into operation an appeal may be brought to the House of Lords from any judgment or order of the Court of Appeal herein-after mentioned in any case in which any appeal or error might now be brought to the House of Lords or to Her Majesty in Council from a similar judgment, decree, or order of any Court or Judge whose jurisdiction is by the principal Act transferred to the High Court of Justice or the Court of Appeal, or in any case in which leave to appeal shall be given by the Court of Appeal.
3 Explanation of 36 & 37 Vict. c. 66. s. 5. as tonumber of Judges.
3. Whereas by section five of the principal Act it is provided as follows: ‘that if at the commencement of this Act the number of puisne justices and junior barons who shall become Judges of the said High Court shall exceed twelve in the whole, no new Judge of the said High Court shall be appointed in the place of any such puisne justice or junior baron who shall die or resign while such whole number shall exceed twelve, it being intended that the permanent number of Judges of the said High Court shall not exceed twenty-one;’ and whereas, having regard to the state of business in the several courts whose jurisdiction is transferred by the principal Act to the High Court of Justice, it is expedient that the number of Judges thereof should not at present be reduced: Be it enacted, that so much of the said section as is herein-before recited shall be repealed.
The Lord Chancellor shall not be deemed to be a permanent Judge of that Court, and the provisions of the said section relating to the appointment and style of the Judges of the said High Court shall not apply to the Lord Chancellor.
4 Constitution of Court of Appeal.
4. Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, in this Act and in the principal Act referred to as the Court of Appeal, shall be constituted as follows: There shall be five ex-officio Judges thereof, and also so many ordinary Judges, not exceeding three at any one time, as Her Majesty shall from time to time appoint.
The ex-officio Judges shall be the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
The first ordinary Judges of the said Court shall be the present Lords Justices of Appeal in Chancery, and such one other person as Her Majesty may be pleased to appoint by Letters Patent. Such appointment may be made either before or after the commencement of this Act, but if made before shall take effect at the commencement of the Act.
The ordinary Judges of the Court of Appeal shall be styled Justices of Appeal.
The Lord Chancellor may by writing addressed to the President of any one or more of the following divisions of the High Court of Justice, that is to say, the Queen's Bench Division, the Common Pleas Division, the Exchequer Division, and the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, request the attendance at any time, except during the times of the spring or summer circuits, of an additional Judge from such division or divisions, (not being ex-officio Judge or Judges of the Court of Appeal) at the sittings of the Court of Appeal, and a Judge, to be selected by the division from which his attendance is requested, shall attend accordingly.
Every additional Judge, during the time that he attends the sittings of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, shall have all the jurisdiction and powers of a Judge of the said Court of Appeal, but he shall not otherwise be deemed to be a Judge of the said Court, or to have ceased to be a Judge of the division of the High Court of Justice to which he belongs.
Section fifty-four of the principal Act is hereby repealed, and instead thereof the following enactment shall take effect: No Judge of the said Court of Appeal shall sit as a Judge on the hearing of an appeal from any judgment or order made by himself, or made by any Divisional Court of the High Court of which he was and is a member.
Whenever the office of an ordinary Judge of the Court of Appeal becomes vacant a new Judge may be appointed thereto by Her Majesty by Letters Patent.
5 Tenure of office of Judges, and oaths of office.Judges not to sit in the House of Commons.
5. All the Judges of the High Court of Justice, and of the Court of Appeal respectively, with the exception of the Lord Chancellor, shall hold their offices as such Judges respectively during good behaviour, subject to a power of removal by Her Majesty, on an address presented to Her Majesty by both Houses of Parliament. No Judge of either of the said Courts shall be capable of being elected to or of sitting in the House of Commons. Every person appointed after the passing of this Act to be Judge of either of the said Courts (other than the Lord Chancellor), when he enters on the execution of his office, shall take, in the presence of the Lord Chancellor, the oath of allegiance, and judicial oath as defined by the Promissory Oaths Act, 1868. The oaths to be taken by the Lord Chancellor shall be the same as heretofore.
6 Precedence of Judges.
6. The Lord Chancellor shall be President of the Court of Appeal; the other ex-officio Judges of the Court of Appeal shall rank in the order of their present respective official precedence. The ordinary Judges of the Court of Appeal, if not entitled to precedence as Peers or Privy Councillors, shall rank according to the priority of their respective appointments as such Judges.
The Judges of the High Court of Justice who are not also Judges of the Court of Appeal shall rank next after the Judges of the Court of Appeal, and, among themselves (subject to the provisions in the principal Act contained as to existing Judges), according to the priority of their respective appointments.
7 Jurisdiction of Lords Justices in respect of lunatics.
7. Any jurisdiction usually vested in the Lords Justices of Appeal in Chancery, or either of them, in relation to the persons and estates of idiots, lunatics, and persons of unsound mind, shall be exercised by such Judge or Judges of the High Court of Justice or Court of Appeal as may be intrusted by the sign manual of Her Majesty or Her successors with the care and commitment of the custody of such persons and estates; and all enactments referring to the Lords Justices as so intrusted shall be construed as if such Judge or Judges so intrusted had been named therein instead of such Lords Justices: Provided that each of the persons who may at the commencement of the principal Act be Lords Justices of Appeal in Chancery shall, during such time as he continues to be a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and is intrusted as aforesaid, retain the jurisdiction vested in him in relation to such persons and estates as aforesaid.
8 Admiralty Judges and registrar.
8. Whereas by section eleven of the principal Act it is provided as follows: ‘Every existing Judge who is by this Act made a Judge of the High Court of Justice or an ordinary Judge of the Court of Appeal shall, as to tenure of office, rank, title, salary, pension, patronage, and powers of appointment or dismissal, and all other privileges and disqualifications, remain in the same condition as if this Act had not passed; and, subject to the change effected in their jurisdiction and duties by or in pursuance of the provisions of this Act, each of the said existing Judges shall be capable of performing and liable to perform all duties which he would have been capable of performing or liable to perform in pursuance of any Act of Parliament, law, or custom if this Act had not passed. No Judge appointed before the passing of this Act shall be required to act under any commission of assize, nisi prius, oyer and terminer, or gaol delivery, unless he was so liable by usage or custom at the commencement of this Act:’
And whereas the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty is by the principal Act appointed a Judge of the High Court of Justice:
And whereas such Judge is, as to salary and pension, inferior in position to the other puisne Judges of the superior courts of common law, but holds certain ecclesiastical and other offices in addition to the office of Judge of the High Court of Admiralty:
And whereas it is expedient that such Judge, if he be willing to relinquish such other offices, should be...
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