I move amendment No. 1:—
In page 2, line 18, to delete the word "an" and substitute the words "decree or".
This is a drafting amendment to make the position clear.
Public Business. - Circuit Court (Registration of Judgments) Bill, 1936—Committee.
In this Act—
the expression "the Central Office" means the Central Office of the High Court;
the word "judgment" includes an order.
Amendment agreed to.
Section 1, as amended, agreed to.
SECTION 3.
Question proposed: "That Section 3 stand part of the Bill."
I handed in an amendment to this Bill and would like to mention on this section the matter I proposed to deal with.
Amendment No. 2, tabled by the Deputy, is out of order.
Yes, but may I not mention it on this section which provides for judgments in the Circuit Court to be registered in a particular way? Possibly, the Minister himself will agree that the matter I propose to deal with is important. Under this Bill Circuit Court judgments for any amount, for sums as small as £5, can be registered. But if a judgment is obtained in the District Court for £20 or £25, it cannot be so registered. I do not know what view the Minister may take of the inferiority of the District Court as distinct from the Circuit Court, but at the moment, under this Bill, I understand that it will be possible to register any judgment in that particular way that is obtained in a Circuit Court. For a like matter, however, a judgment obtained in a like way in the District Court cannot be so registered. Consequently, I would appeal to the Minister, even at this stage, to give the matter his consideration and to see if an injustice is not being done somewhere. If it is right that certain Acts should be repealed, as certain enactments are here repealed, for the sake of allowing certain judgments to be registered by way of mortgage, I think that that also ought to extend to the matters I have mentioned. It has been pointed out to me by a legal friend as being a great drawback.
Well, the position, as I said on a previous occasion, is that this Bill is based on a recommendation of the Bankruptcy Commission, and subsequently on a recommendation by a commission set up under the Courts of Justice Act, 1924. They made the recommendation embodied in this Bill, but they made no recommendation with regard to district courts. Subsequently, recommendations were made by the Incorporated Law Society representing, I understand, the great majority of the solicitors of the country, and they again did not make any recommendation with regard to the District Court. I did raise the matter with the then President of the Incorporated Law Society as to whether this might be included. He may have had his own view of the matter, but so far as the Incorporated Law Society is concerned, they made no recommendation in regard to this matter. I had an open mind on the subject and I wondered why they should not have included it. I understand, from whatever statistics are available, that the great majority of these decrees in district courts are small and that no hardship has resulted from this. However, as I say, I have an open mind on the matter, and if the Deputy could get his legal friend, who is interested in this thing and who has experience of it, to get in touch with the bodies concerned, I would have no objection, provided that there is nothing against it from the procedure point of view, to including it on the Report Stage if I am satisfied that there is any hardship from not including it in the Bill. I did not see why it should be included since there was no recommendation and we were including the other; but if a case can be made for it, I have no objection whatever to including it provided, as I say, that there is nothing difficult from the procedure point of view. Perhaps the Deputy's friend knows ways to get that thing going between now and the Report Stage, and I shall certainly try to meet the Deputy's wishes if a case can be made for it.
I am glad that the Minister has expressed himself as being personally in agreement with the principle of the thing, but after all I think that the Minister's own Department are the best people to inquire into this matter, since they have more statistics and have everything to go upon which an ordinary individual would not have. If the Minister is prepared to inquire into it and to get his Department to inquire into it, I think it is desirable that they should do it. If there is an injustice, and if there is an opportunity to remedy it, I think we ought to take advantage of it.
Well, I shall look into it between now and the Report Stage. Sections 3 and 4 agreed to.
As the Chair informed the Deputy concerned, amendment No. 2 is out of order, being outside the scope of this measure.
Sections 5 and 6 agreed to.
Schedule and Title of the Bill agreed to.
Bill reported with amendment.
Report Stage ordered for Wednesday, 24th February.