§ JURISDICTION OF, AND APPEAL ON QUES-
TION OF FACT FROM, COUNTY COURTS
§ (1) The jurisdiction conferred on a county court by section 11 or section (Orders for repayment in certain cases of sums paid after cessation of order by reason of remarriage) of this Act or paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 thereto shall be exercisable by a county court notwithstanding that by reason of the amount claimed in an application made under either of those sections or the said paragraph 5, as the case may be, the jurisdiction would not but for this subsection be exercisable by a county court.
§ (2) At the end of subsection (2) of section 109 of the County Courts Act 1959 (appeals on questions of fact) there shall be inserted the following paragraph:—
§ ' (g) any proceedings on an application for an order under section 13A of the Matri- 1986 monial Proceedings (Magistrates' Courts) Act 1960, section 11 of the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970, section 15 of that Act, section (Orders for repayment in certain cases of sums paid after cessation of order by reason of remarriage) thereof or paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 thereto.'—[The Solicitor-General.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
The new Clause confers on a county court jurisdiction irrespective of the amount involved in the case of an application for the repayment of excess payments under a maintenance order. It also confers a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal on a question of fact from an order of a county court made on such an application, or on any other application specified in the new Clause.
Subsection (1) deals with the jurisdiction of a county court. Normally, county court jurisdiction is limited by the amount involved, but in matrimonial causes this is not the case. In undefended divorce generally and the ancillary applications arising therefrom, a county court has no limit on its jurisdiction dependent upon the amount of money claimed or at stake. The repayment of excess payments involves proceedings similar in many ways to ancillary proceedings in divorce, and where a county court is given jurisdiction, it is reasonable that that jurisdiction should not depend upon the amount involved.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Clause read a Second time and added to the Bill.