Law of Evidence Act 1844 No 7a (NSW)

A N N O OCTAVO

V I C T O R I A R E G I N ^ E .

No. I.

An Act for improving- the Law of Evidence.

[26th June, 1844.]

WHEREAS the inquiry after t ruth in Courts of Justice is often obstructed by incapacities created by the present law and it is

desirable that full information as to the facts in issue both in criminal

and in civil cases should bo laid before the persons who are appointed to decide upon them and that such persons should exercise their judg­ ment on the credit of the witnesses adduced and on the t ruth of their testimony Now therefore be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof That no person offered as a witness shall hereafter be excluded by reason of incapacity from crime or interest from giving evidence either in person or by deposition according to the practice of the Court on the trial of any issue joined or of any matter or question or on any inquiry arising in any suit action or proceeding civil or criminal in any Court or before any Judge Ju ry Sheriff Coroner Magis- trate officer or person having by law or by consent of parties authority to hear receive and examine evidence in the Colony of New South Wales but that every person so offered may and shall be admitted to give evi­ dence on oath or solemn affirmation in those cases wherein affirmation is by law receivable notwithstanding that such person may or shall have an interest in the matter in question or in the event of the trial of any issue matter question or injury or of the suit action or proceeding in which he is offered as a witness and notwithstanding that such person offered as a witness may have been previously convicted of any crime or offence Provided that this Act shall not render competent any party to any suit action or proceeding individually named in the record or any lessor of the plaintiff or tenant of premises sought to be recovered in eject­ ment or the landlord or other person in whose right any defendant in replevin may make cognizance or any person in whose immediate and individual behalf any action may be brought or defended cither wholly or in part or the husband or wife of such persons respectively Provided also that this Act shall not repeal any provision in a certain Act passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the seventh year of the reign of His late Majesty and in the first year of the reign of Her present Majesty intituled " An Act for the amendment of the Laics with respect to Wills" which said last mentioned Act was adopted and applied in the administration of justice in New South Wales by a certain Act of His Excellency the Governor and Legislative Council thereof passed in the third year of the reign of Her present Majesty intituled " An Act for " adopting a certain Act of Parliament intituled ' An Act for the " amendment of the Laics with respect to Wills' in the administration " of justice m New South Wales in like manner as other Laws of " England

" England are applied therein" Provided further that in Courts of Equity any defendant to any cause pending in any such Court may he examined as a witness on the behalf of the plaintiff or of any co- defendant in any such cause saving just exceptions and that any interest which such defendant so to be examined may have in the matters or any of the matters in question in the cause shall not be deemed a just exception to the testimony of such defendant but shall only be considered as affecting or tending to affect the credit of such defendant as a witness.

2. And be it enacted That nothing in this Act shall apply to or affect any suit action or proceeding brought or commenced before the passing of this Act.