LANCASTER PALATINE COURT (No. 2) BILL (Hansard, 10 July 1952)

§ LORD MANCROFT

My Lords, if the last Bill to which your Lordships have been good enough to give a Second Reading was, in all conscience, dull and technical enough, this one is far worse. I am glad to say that it attempts to do even less, and I think I can put its merits before your Lordships in a very few words. The Lancaster Palatine Court is a Court of very ancient history and honourable tradition. Its powers have, however, been whittled down in the course of the years and it now has solely a Chancery jurisdiction. It is almost another branch in Lancaster of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. It deals only with those matters which have an equitable flavour, with such matters as infancy, wills, trusts, partnerships—generally those matters which the learned author of the Forensic Fables described as likely to be concluded by three elderly gentlemen with grey beards all getting up and asking for costs out of the estate.

A curious anomaly exists in the administration and function of this Court. It is not possible, apparently, to transfer some matters of a Chancery nature from the High Court to the Lancaster Palatine Court. Recently the Assize Courts in Lancashire, particularly in Manchester and Liverpool, have become heavily congested, and many of the matters down for hearing could well have been heard in the Lancaster Palatine Court if only the power to transfer them had existed. It is this power that this Bill seeks to produce. It is a very 1004 restricted and confined power, and there is no suggestion that any matters such as divorce or crime, or any ordinary Common Law matters, should be capable of transfer. Nor is it suggested that the appeal jurisdiction of the Chancery Division of the High Court should be transferable. There is a certain appellate jurisdiction in the Chancery Division of the High Court, notably in matters of bastardy and infancy, and in bankruptcy. It is felt that it would not be right to transfer such matters of appeal, but that it would be preferable to keep the appeal jurisdiction together in the High Court, where the opportunities for conference between the judges, for fuller sets of reports and for technical matters, make it more desirable.

My Lords, that is all the Bill seeks to do. I ought to add that there is one difficulty arising about which I hope the Lord Chancellor and the Chancellor of the Exchequer may be able to help. At the moment, legal aid is not available in the Lancaster Palatine Court, so that if a case in which legal aid has been granted in the High Court is transferred to the Palatine Court some embarrassment may be occasioned. I think that is only an administrative point, and perhaps the Lord Chancellor may be able to help us on that matter.

This Bill has the approval of the local law societies and also of the Bar Council. I believe that it also has the approval of Her Majesty's Government. It was thoroughly threshed out in another place and, to a certain degree, re-drafted. I can therefore commend it to your Lordships with as much enthusiasm as I commended my previous attempt. I think it only proper to add that I have never myself practised in the Lancaster Palatine Court, nor do I think I ever shall in the future. With those words I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft, in introducing this Bill, is as accurate with his left barrel as with his right. This Bill also I commend to your Lordships, and I think I need say nothing more than this: that as one who for many years practised in the Chancery Courts, and therefore no doubt exactly fulfil the description which the noble Lord gave of those who practice 1005 in those Courts, I personally, with the experience which I gained during those many years, can give this Bill my blessing, as well as that of Her Majesty's Government. I have only just had handed to me a note in connection with the noble Lord's question on legal aid. Without pledging myself or Her Majesty's Government in any way, I think it will be possible to give the assistance in regard to legal aid to which the noble Lord referred, but I will have that matter looked into further.