West Indian Court of Appeal Act 1919
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1919 c. 47 |
| Year | 1919 |
West Indian Court of Appeal Act, 1919
(9 & 10 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 47.
An Act to provide for the establishment of a Court of Appeal for certain of His Majesty's Colonies in the West Indies.
[15th August 1919]
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 Constitution of West Indian Court of Appeal.
(1) There shall be a Court of Appeal for the West Indian Colonies to which this Act applies, which shall be called the West Indian Court of Appeal, and is in this Act referred to as ‘the Court of Appeal.’
(2) The colonies to which this Act applies shall be the colonies of Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana, Barbados, the Leeward Islands, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent:
Provided that His Majesty may, by Order in Council from time to time, add any other colony to the number of colonies to which this Act applies, or direct that this Act shall no longer apply to any colony specified in the Order if, in any such case, His Majesty is satisfied that due provision in that behalf has been made by the Legislature of the colony in question.
(3) The Judges of the Court of Appeal shall be the Chief Justices of the colonies to which this Act, for the time being, applies:
Provided that—
(a ) if the Chief Justice of the colony in which the Court of Appeal is at any time sitting is unable from any cause to sit, the Governor of the colony may appoint a person appearing to him to be duly qualified instead of such Chief Justice to sit and hear either a particular appeal or all appeals to be heard during the whole of any particular sittings of the court in that colony; and
(b ) His Majesty may by letters patent appoint an additional judge of the Court of Appeal who shall be a barrister of not less than eight years standing.
The expression ‘Chief Justice’ in this Act, in the case of the colonies of Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, means the senior substantive Chief Justice in those colonies, and, in the case of other colonies to which this Act applies, includes any person for the time being acting in the capacity of Chief Justice.
(4) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, direct that the court of Appeal shall sit in two or more divisions, and may assign any colony to any division, with the consent of such colony, expressed by resolution of the legislature thereof, but every judge of the court may sit in any division.
(5) The Court of Appeal shall have, and use as occasion may require, a seal, having a device or impression of the Royal Arms, with the inscription ‘The West Indian Court of Appeal.’
(6) The Court of Appeal shall be duly constituted if it consists of not less than three judges and of an uneven number of judges.
(7) The determination of any question before the Court of Appeal shall be according to the opinion of the majority of the members of the court hearing the case.
(8) A judge of the Court of Appeal shall not sit as a judge on the hearing of an appeal from any judgment or order made by himself or made by any court, if he was present and acting as a member of the court at the time when the decision appealed from was made, or at the argument...
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