(NO. 105.) SECOND READING. (Hansard, 19 June 1882)

§ LORD O'HAGAN,

in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that it would, if passed, facilitate and improve the means of obtaining appeals from the County Courts in Ireland. There were certain difficulties existing under the present law. Certain cases disposed of by the County Courts were not appealable; and the object of the Bill was to give an appeal in every case, except those which came within the late Acts of Parliament dealing with the equitable jurisdiction of the County Courts. The second object of this legislation was to give an opportunity of appealing, which at present could only be done whilst the County Court was sitting, after the sittings of the Court had terminated. If that were not done, there would be in many cases a defeat of justice. The Bill also provided that certain jurisdiction should be given to i County Courts in Ireland which they 1557 did not at present possess—one of which was to allow executors to administer, within certain limits, the assets in the County Courts; and also to give County Courts jurisdiction in cases where there had been mistake or fraud, and where the County Courts had not, up to the present, been able to take action under the existing law. He believed, in both these cases, it was considered a matter of great hardship that people having to deal only with small cases should be compelled to go to the Courts of Chancery, and incur enormous expense, where the matter at issue was often of a trifling amount. He would conclude by moving the second reading.

THE EARL OF MILLTOWN

said, he did not wish to oppose the Bill. It, however, gave an absolutely unlimited right of appeal; and it was not, in his opinion, always of advantage to a poor person that there should be a right of appeal in his case. Such a power might often have the effect of defeating the ends of justice, and he thought a person making an appeal should have to show good grounds for doing so. There should, moreover, be no right of appeal in actions of debt under a certain amount, otherwise it might be possible for a rich man to crush a poor man by insisting on his right of appeal. Then the appeal was to a Judge of Assize; and, unfortunately—or fortunately as some think—in Ireland the Assizes only took place twice a-year, and a considerable amount of time might thus elapse before an appeal could possibly be heard. There was a Winter Assize, and he would suggest that appeals should be heard before the Judges who went on those Assizes. He saw that the Bill made it unnecessary that an affidavit should be made by the appellant that the appeal was not made for the purpose of delay. That would be a bad provision, and he trusted the noble and learned Lord (Lord O'Hagan) would see the desirability of taking it out of the Bill.