§ The proviso to Sub-section (3) of Section eleven of the principal Act (which provides 1524 that the arbitrator or the Court may direct that the Commission shall not be liable to pay costs in connection with the severance of a lease incurred by a person who appears to the Court to have been unreasonable or guilty of negligence or default) shall have effect as if for the words "who appears to the Court" there were substituted the words "who appears to the arbitrator or the Court"—[Major Lloyd George.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
Major Lloyd GeorgeI beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."
Section II of the Act of 1938 deals with the case where the ownership of property comprised in a lease was severed by the Act, part being transferred to the Commission and part remaining under the same ownership. Sub-section (I) of the Section provides that in these cases the amount of the rent to be apportioned to each part shall be determined by arbitration in default of agreement. Sub-section (3) provides that the Commission are to pay the cost of this arbitration and of all applications made to the court for the purpose of determining the rights and liabilities of the persons affected. The proviso to Sub-section (3), which is amended by this new Clause, provides that the arbitrator or the court may deprive a person of costs which appear to the court, not to the arbitrator, to have been incurred unreasonably. As the proviso stands at present, a person who has acted unreasonably in the proceedings before the arbitrator can be deprived of costs by the arbitrator unless it is shown to the court that they are unreasonable. We think that the whole matter ought to be left to the arbitrator.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.