No. 21/1937:

COURT OFFICERS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1937

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Definitions.

2 Times and places at which business may be transacted.

3 District court areas in the Dublin and Cork districts.

4 Appointment of places, days, and hours in the Dublin district.

5 Allocation of business in Dublin by the senior justice.

6 Short title and collective citation.

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47 of THE COURT OFFICERS ACT, 1926 , AND TO MAKE PROVISION FOR CERTAIN MATTERS ARISING IN RELATION TO THAT SECTION, INCLUDING MATTERS WHICH SO AROSE BEFORE THE PASSING OF THIS ACT.

[9th June, 1937.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1.—In this Act—

the expression "the Minister" means the Minister for Justice;

the expression "the Principal Act" means the Court Officers Act, 1926 (No. 27 of 1926);

the expression "the Dublin district" means the district prescribed by the Minister under section 68 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924), which consists of the Dublin Metropolitan Area;

the expression "the Cork district" means the district prescribed by the Minister under the said section 68 which includes the county borough of Cork.

2.—(1) It shall be and be deemed always to have been lawful for a justice, of the District Court when sitting at a place, on a day, and at an hour appointed under section 47 of the Principal Act for the transaction of any particular class of business of the District Court, to transact at such sitting any other class of business of the District Court.

(2) It shall be and be deemed always to have been lawful for a justice of the District Court to transfer or adjourn the transaction of any business of that Court in which he has jurisdiction to either—

( a ) another occasion at the place in which he was transacting such business at the time of such transfer or adjournment, whether such occasion is or is not a day and hour appointed under section 47 of the Principal Act, or

( b ) to another occasion (whether such occasion is or is not a day and hour appointed under the said section 47) at some other place in his district which is a place appointed under the said section 47 for the transaction of business of the District Court, whether such business does or does not include the said business so transferred or adjourned.

3.—(1) It is hereby declared and enacted that, notwithstanding anything contained in section 47 of the Principal Act, it is not and never was obligatory upon the Minister to divide the Dublin district or the Cork district into district court areas.

(2) As from the passing of The Principal Act and unless and until the Minister divides (under section 47 of the Principal Act) the Dublin district into two or more district court areas, the Dublin district shall for all purposes be and be deemed always to have been a single district court area (in this Act referred to as the Dublin district court area) created by the Minister under sub-section (1) of the said section 47 for the purposes of all classes of business transacted in the District Court.

(3) As from the passing of The Principal Act and unless and until the Minister divides (under section 47 of the Principal Act) the Cork district into two or more district court areas, the Cork district shall for all purposes be and be deemed always to have been a single district court area (in this Act referred to as the Cork district court area) created by the Minister under sub-section (1) of the said section 47 for the purposes of all classes of business transacted in the District Court.

(4) Sub-sections (2), (3), and (4) of section 47 of the Principal Act shall apply and be deemed always to have applied to the Dublin district court area and to the Cork district court area as if those district court areas had in fact been lawfully created by the Minister under sub-section (1) of the said section 47, but such application of the said sub-section (2) to the Dublin district court area shall be and be deemed always to have been subject to the provisions of the next following section of this Act.

4.—(1) For the purposes of the application of sub-section (2) of section 47 of the Principal Act to the Dublin District Court area, that sub-section shall operate and be deemed always to have operated to confer on the Minister power to appoint different places and different days and hours different classes of business.

(2) The courthouse in Morgan Place in the City of Dublin shall be deemed to have been appointed before the 1st day of November, 1931, by the Minister under sub-section (2) of section 47 of the Principal Act to be a place at which the District Court should be held for the purpose of transacting all classes of the business of the District Court for the Dublin district court area, and the hours of 10:30 a.m. on all week days shall be deemed to have been similarly appointed as the days and hours at which the District Court should be held in the said courthouse for the purpose of transacting the said classes of business.

(3) No business of the District Court transacted in the Dublin district court area before the passing of this Act shall be or be deemed ever to have been invalid or ineffectual by reason only of such business having been transacted in a place or on a day or at an hour other than the place, day, or hour appointed therefor under section 47 of the Principal Act.

5.—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 47 of the Principal Act or any appointment of a place or of a day or hour made or deemed by this Act to have been made under that section before the passing of this Act, it shall be lawful for the senior of the justices of the District Court for the time being assigned to the Dublin district (in this section referred to as the senior justice) to determine from time to time, the class or classes of business of the District Court to be transacted in each of the several places in the Dublin district court area for the time being appointed under the said section 47 for the transaction of any class of the business of the District Court, and it shall also be lawful for the senior justice to determine from time to time the days and hours at which the several classes of such business shall be respectively transacted in the several places so determined.

(2) Whenever after the passing of this Act the Minister appoints under section 47 of the Principal Act a place in the Dublin district court area for the transaction of all or any classes of the business of the District Court or any day or hour for the transaction of any class or classes of such business in any such place, such appointment shall either, as the Minister shall direct when making such appointment, be made in substitution for and overriding the powers conferred on the senior justice by this section or be made subject and without prejudice to those powers and any exercise thereof by such senior justice

6.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Court Officers (Amendment) Act, 1937 .

(2) The Principal Act and this Act may be cited together as the Court Officer Acts, 1926 and 1937.