Crown Suits Act Amendment Act 1919 (WA)

CROWN SUITS ACT AMEND-

MENT.

10° GEO. V., No. III

No. 14 of 1919.

AN ACT to amend the Crown Suits Act, 1898.

[Assented to 27th September, 1919.]

13 E it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, byCouncil and Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, inand with the advice and consent of the Legislative	this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same, as follows:—

Sho 1 1. This Act may be cited as the Crown Suits Act :Emend-

ment Act, 1919.

1919.] Croiclz Suits Act—Amendment. [No. 14.

2. Section thirty-five of the Crown Suits Act, 1898, is for

hereby repealed, and a section is substituted therefor, as VinTio"

follows:— Suits Act, 1808.

35. (1.) Whenever any person has any claim or de- mand in respect of which a petition might be presented under this Act, and which if it were against a subject would be within the jurisdiction of a Local Court, he may apply to a law officer for his consent to the hearing and determination thereof in a Local Court to be named in the application.

(2.)

The law officer may in his discretion give or with- hold such consent, and on the consent being given, the petition for such claim or demand shall be intituled and filed in the Local Court, and thereupon an action shall be deemed to have been commenced in such Court be- tween the petitioner as plaintiff and the Crown as de- fend ant.

(3.) Forthwith after the filing of the petition, the clerk of the Local Court shall issue and cause to be served on the Attorney General or the Crown Solicitor a summons (in a form to he prescribed by rules made hereunder) addressed to the Attorney General request- ing him to answer the petitioner's claim or demand, and shall attach thereto a copy of the petition.

(4.)

Subject to "rules of Court made hereunder, the matter of the petition shall proceed and be carried on and judgment may be given thereon in such Court in the same manner, as nearly as may be, as in an action therein between subject and subject.

(5.)

Subject to this section and the rules made there- under, the provisions of this part of this Act shall apply

mutatis miaow/is to proceedings in a Local Court here-

under.

(6.) The Clerk of the Local Court shall exercise and S161904, No.51,

discharge such powers and functions in reference to any *

judgment given therein under this section as the Regis- trar of the Supreme Court is empowered to exercise and discharge in reference to a judgment given in that Court under this Act.

Rules of Court may be made by the Governor for regulating proceedings under this section and for pre- scribing the practice and procedure thereon and for fix- ing the Court fees that shall be paid in connection there- with.

(7.)

No. 14.] Crown Suits A ct—Antendinent. [1919.

(8.) Whenever the amount recovered in any suit in the Supreme Court might, under this section, with the con- sent of a law officer, have been recovered in a Local Court, the following provisions shall apply:—

(a)	If in a suit founded on contract the petitioner re- covers a sum less than twenty pounds, he shall not be entitled to any costs of the suit; and if he recovers a sum of twenty pounds or upwards, but not exceeding fifty pounds, he shall not be en- titled to any more costs than he would have been entitled to if the suit had been prosecuted in a Local Court; and
(b)	If in a suit founded on tort the petitioner recovers a sum less than ten pounds, he shall not be en- titled to any costs of the suit; and if he recovers a sum of ten pounds or upwards, but not exceed- ing twenty pounds, he shall not be entitled to any more costs than lie would have been entitled to if the suit had been prosecuted in a Local Court unless-

(i) he shall prove that he applied to a law offi- cer for his consent to the hearing and de- termination in a Local Court (being the Local Court at Perth, or a proper court within the meaning of the Local Courts Act, 1904), of the claim or demand, and that the law officer, though he had power to give such consent hereunder, refused it; or

(ii) a judge of the Supreme Court certifies that there was sufficient reason for bring- ing the suit in that court.

(9.) When any suit commenced in the Supreme Court under this Part of this Act is such that it might, if insti- tuted against a subject, have been brought in a Local Court without the defendant's consent, or if the claim in the suit, though it originally exceeded one hundred pounds has been reduced by payment into Court, an ad- mitted set-off or otherwise to a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, then application may be made on behalf of the Crown to a Judge in Chambers for an order re- mitting the suit to a Local Court, and the Judge may in

1919.] Crown Suits Act—Amendment. [No. 14.

his discretion make an order accordingly, and thereupon the provisions of section eighty-seven of the Local Courts Act, 1904, shall apply.

(10.) Section eighty-eight of the Local Courts Act, 1904, shall apply to any suit against the Crown, founded on tort, which has been commenced in the Supreme Court, as if it were an action between subject and sub- ject.