PURCHASERS' PROTECTION AGAINST JUDGMENTS BILL. (Hansard, 19 February 1855)

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

said, the object of the Bill, as proposed by his noble and learned Friend (Lord St. Leonards), was to require that all judgments recovered in the courts of the counties palatine of Lancaster and Durham should be registered in the particular palatine courts in the same way as judgments recovered in the courts of Westminster were registered there. Now, he saw no necessity for making two registries, and he thought the more reasonable plan would be to enact that all judgments recovered in the palatine courts should be registered in 1504 London, and thus a single search would always be sufficient. He also objected to a clause at the end of the Bill, which would have the effect of perpetuating the necessity for registering annuities. He thought that since the repeal of the Usury Laws that had become an unnecessary proceeding. Annuities were very rare now; and if they were to be registered, he saw no reason why there should not also be a registry for other matters of infinitely more importance. Under the present Bill it would be necessary to register a great many more documents than under the former law. But if the noble and learned Lord who introduced the Bill, and who was thoroughly acquainted with the subject, did not think his objections valid, he should not interfere further.

§ LORD ST. LEONARDS

said, his noble and learned Friend seemed to have forgotten that the 1 & 2 Vict. had established separate registers for the counties palatine of Lancaster and Durham, and what the Bill proposed was that judgments obtained in these courts should be brought within the operation of the Act. By the law of England, although the judgments of the palatine courts only bound lands in the particular jurisdiction, yet a general judgment of the Superior Courts at Westminster bound lands in the counties palatine. The noble and learned Lord on the woolsack asked why not have one registry in London? The answer to that was, that they were not at liberty to abolish the registries which now existed in Lancaster and Durham. At the present moment lands were not bound in the palatine counties by judgments recovered in the Superior Courts, unless they were registered in the particular palatine court; but to prevent any doubt upon that subject he had added to one of the clauses words to the effect that no judgment should bind lands in the jurisdiction of a particular palatine court, unless it be registered in that court. With respect to the other remark of the noble and learned Lord, he must observe that there was a great difference between a general registry, with all its complications, vexations, and expenses, and the registry of annuities proposed by the present Bill, which merely required, in reference to annuities not created by marriage settlement or will, that, in order to give them validity upon the estate against any purchaser, a memorandum of them should be entered in a book kept for the purpose by the Senior Master of the Common 1505 Pleas. His reason for providing for the registration of annuities was that annuitants never had possession of the deeds, and, therefore, it was the more necessary to have as complete and perfect a system of registration as possible.