§ 2.44 p.m.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT KILMUIR)My Lords, under Standing Order V an appellant must give security for costs when bringing an appeal to the House of Lords, and this may be done by means of a recognisance for £500, and a bond for £200, or by a recognisance and a lodgment of £200 in cash. The total amount, therefore, to be secured under the Standing Orders is £700, but no provision is made for the payment of the total sum of £700 in cash. In recent years parties have found it convenient to pay the total amount in cash, and when this occurs it is now necessary to make a formal Order in the Minutes allowing them to do so. The purpose of these Amendments to Standing Order V, and of the consequential Amendments to Standing Order XI, is to bring the procedure as laid down in the Standing Orders into line with modern practice, thereby enabling appellants to an appeal to lodge £700 in cash by way of security, as an alternative to entering into a bond or recognisance, without an order of the House having been made in each case to enable them to do so. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the following Amendments be made to the Standing Orders regulating Judicial Business:
§ The following Standing Order shall be substituted for Standing Order V, namely—
§ ("V. (1) ORDERED, that in all Appeals the Appellants do give security for costs either—
- (a) by payment into the House of Lords Security Fund Account of the sum of seven hundred pounds, such sum to be subject to the Order of the House in regard to the costs of the Appeal; or
- (b) by payment of the sum of two hundred pounds into the House of Lords Security Fund Account, and by entering into a recognizance, in person or by substitute, to the amount of five hundred pounds; or
- (c) by procuring two sufficient sureties, to the satisfaction of the Clerk of the Parliaments, to enter into a joint and several bond to the amount of two hundred pounds, and by entering into a recognizance, in person or by substitute, to the amount of five hundred pounds.
§ ORDERED, that all payments of money into the Security Fund Account be made within one week of the presentation of the Appeal.
§ ORDERED, that the names of sureties or substitutes, with a certificate of sufficiency signed by the Agents for the Appellants, be lodged in the Parliament Office within one week of the presentation of the Appeal, two clear days' previous notice of the names so proposed for the bond and the recognizance having been given to the Solicitors or Agents for the Respondents.
§ (2) ORDERED, that, in the event of the Clerk of the Parliaments requiring a justification of the sureties or substitute, the Agents for the Appellants do, within one week from the date of official notice to that effect, lodge in the Parliament Office an affidavit or affidavits by the proposed sureties or substitute, setting forth specifically the nature of the property in consideration of which they claim to he accepted, and also declaring that the property in question is unencumbered and that, after payment of all just debts and liabilities, such sureties or substitute are each well and truly worth the sums required under the bond or the recognizance respectively.
§ ORDERED, that, in the event of the proposed sureties to the bond not being deemed satisfactory by the Clerk of the Parliaments. the Appellants do, within four weeks of the date of official notice by the Clerk of the Parliaments to that effect, pay into the Security Fund Account the sum of two hundred pounds, to be subject to the Order of the House with regard to the costs of the Appeal; and that, in the event of the proposed substitute to the recognizance not being deemed satisfactory by the Clerk of the Parliaments, the Appellants do enter into the usual recognizance in person.
§ (3) ORDERED, that any such bond and the recognizance (whether entered into by the Appellants or by a substitute) be returned to the Parliament Office duly executed within one week from the date of the issue thereof to the Solicitors or Agents for the Appellants.
§ On default by the Appellants in complying with the above conditions, the Appeal to stand dismissed.")
§ Standing Order XI, line 15, leave out ("the sum of £200, where that amount") and insert ("any sum that")
§ line 16, leave out ("account of the").—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to: the said Standing Orders amended accordingly.