Equitable jurisdiction. devisees, in trust or otherwise; heirs at law, or next of kin, in which the personal or real, or personal and real estate against or for an account or administration of which the demand may be made does not exceed in amount or value 5007. (7). (2.) Suits for the execution of trusts in which the trust estate or fund does not exceed in amount or value the like sum (m). (3.) Suits for foreclosure or redemption, or for enforcing any charge or lien, where the mortgage, charge, or lien does not exceed in amount the like sum (n). (4.) * Suits for specific performance of or for the [* 462] reforming, delivering up, or cancelling of any agreement for the sale, purchase, or lease of any property where, in the case of a sale or purchase, the purchase money, or in case of a lease the value of the property, does not exceed the like sum (o). (5.) Proceedings under any of the trustees relief or trustee acts (p), in which the trust estate or fund to which the proceeding relates does not exceed in amount or value the like sum (q). (6.) Proceedings relating to the maintenance or advancement of infants in which the property of the infant does not exceed in amount or value the like sum (r). (7.) Any suit for the dissolution or winding-up of a partnership in which the whole property, stock, and credits of such partnership does not exceed in amount or value the like sum (s). And (8.) Proceedings for orders in the nature of injunctions, where the same are requisite for granting relief in any matter in which jurisdiction is given by 28 & 29 Vict. c. 99, to the county court, or for stay of proceedings at law to recover any debt provable under a decree for the administration of an estate made by the court to which the application for the order to stay proceedings is made (†). In all suits and matters such as above enumerated the judge and officers of the county court have respectively the powers and authorities of those of the court of chancery (u). The suit being commenced by filing a plaint in equity (x), whereupon a summons is issued to the defendant to appear and submit to judgment, and the procedure thus initiated progresses in accordance with the regulations contained in the rules and orders promulgated respecting it (y). *With respect to the court in which proceedings in equity are to [*463] be taken it is enacted that, (1.) Such as relate to the recovery or sale of any mortgage, charge, or lien on lands, tenements or hereditaments shall be taken in that county court within the district of which the said lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any part thereof are situate (z). (2.) Proceedings under the Trustee Acts, 1850 and 1852, shall be taken in the county court within the district of which the persons making the application, or any of them, may reside (a). (3.) Proceedings for the administration of the assets of a deceased person shall be taken in the county court within the district of which the deceased person had his last place of abode in England, or in which the personal representatives, or THE COUNTY COURT. any one of them, shall have their or his place of abode (b). (4). Proceedings in partnership cases shall be taken in the county court within the district of which the partnership business was or is carried on (c). (5.) Proceedings for the specific performance or the delivery up or cancelling of agreements shall be taken in the county court within the district of which the defendants, or any one of them, may reside or carry on business (d); and (6.) Proceedings in any suit or other matter under 28 & 29 Vict. c. 99, not otherwise provided for, shall be taken or instituted in the county court within the district of which the defendants, or any or either of them, may reside or carry on business (e). We may add that any suit or proceeding pending in the court of chancery, which might have been commenced in a county court, may by order of the judge to whose court it is attached be transferred to that county court in which it might have been originally instituted (f). [* 464] The foregoing cursory comments upon the jurisdiction * and practice of the county court will, for the purposes of this volume of our Commentaries, suffice. The powers of this tribunal have thus far been gradually extended and amplified by piecemeal legislation; their actual condition being unsatisfactory (g), and such as cannot reasonably be expected to endure. The policy of recent parliaments has in the main been similar to that of our ancient constitution, as regulated and established by the Anglo-Saxons, whose endeavour was to bring justice home to every man's door, by constituting as many courts of judicature as there were manors and townships in the kingdom, wherein injuries might be redressed in an easy and expeditious manner, by the suffrage of neighbours and friends. The little courts thus constituted in early times, communicated with others of larger juris- [* 465 ] diction, and those with others of a still greater power; ascending gradually from the lowest to the supreme courts, which were respectively constituted to correct the errors of the inferior ones, and to determine such causes as demanded by reason of their weight and difficulty a solemn discussion. The course of justice flowing in large streams from the crown, as its fountain, to the superior courts of record; and being then subdivided into smaller channels, (d) lb. (e) Ib. (f) 30 & 31 Vict. c. 142, s. 8. (g) The Judicature Commissioners, in their first Report, 1869, p. 8, observe, that the present state of the county courts may be appropriately referred to as exhibiting the strange working of a system of separate jurisdic tions, even when exercised by the same court. The county court (they remark) has jurisdiction in common law cases, up to 50%. in It has also contracts, and to 10%. in torts. equitable jurisdiction in certain cases when the value of the property in dispute does not exceed 500%., and in at least one of such cases, namely, an administration suit, it is now competent for any county court judge to restrain the prosecution of actions brought by creditors in any of the superior courts of common law. By stat. 31 & 32 Vict. c. 71 (amended by 32 & 33 Vict. c. 51) some of the county courts have also been invested with admiralty jurisdiction in a large class of cases, where the amount in dispute does not till the whole, and every part of the kingdom, was plentifully watered and refreshed. The minor tribunals here in view have at this day little beside historical interest attaching to them, inasmuch as by statutory provisions noticed at a former page (h), they have been stripped of their civil jurisdiction. Court-baron. The court-baron is a court, not of record, incident to a manor, and holden by the steward thereof, and is of two natures: the one being a customary court, in which the estates of the copyholders are transferred by surrender and admittance, and other matters transacted relative to their tenures only (i); the other, of which we now speak, being a court of common law, held before the freeholders owing suit and service to the manor. This latter court was composed of the lord's tenants (j), who were the pares of each other, and were bound by their feudal tenure to assist their lord in the dispensation of domestic justice. Suit of court was, indeed, a duty and service issuing and arising ratione tenure, the tenants being bound duly to attend and follow the lord's courts, and there from time to time give their assistance, either deciding the property of their neighbours in the court-baron, or correcting their misdemeanors in the court-leet. The court-baron was formerly held every three weeks; its most important business was to determine controversies relating to the right of lands within the manor, and * it also held plea of personal actions, where the debt or damages did not amount to forty shillings (k). Hundred court. [* 466 ] A hundred-court was only a larger court-baron, held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred instead of a manor. The free suitors were here also the judges, and the steward the registrar, as in the case of a court-baron. It likewise is no court of record, and is said by sir Edward Coke to have been derived out of the county court for the ease of the people, that they might have justice done to them at their own doors, without any charge or loss of time (7); but its institution was probably coeval with that of hundreds themselves, which seem to have been, in the Anglo-Saxon times, derived from the polity of the ancient Germans. The county court is a court incident to the jurisdiction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but formerly held pleas of debt or damages under the value of forty shillings (m). The county court now spoken of County court. still exists for important practical purposes. The freeholders of the county are the real judges, the sheriff being a ministerial officer in this court. The great conflux of freeholders, supposed always to attend at the county court, (which Spelman calls "forum plebeia justitiæ et theatrum comitivæ potestatis" (n)), is the reason why all acts of parliament at the end of every session were wont to be there published by the sheriff; why outlawries. are there proclaimed; and why popular elections which the freeholders are to make, as formerly of sheriffs and conservators of the peace, and still of coroners, verderors, and knights of the shire, must be made in pleno comitatu, or in full county, court. By the statute 2 Edw. 6, c. 25, no county court shall be adjourned longer than for one month, consisting of twenty-eight days. And this was also the ancient usage, as appears from the laws of king Edward (h) Ante, pp. 444, 445. (i) Ante, vol. ii. pp. 194 et seq. (j) lb. p. 177. (k) Finch, L. 248. (7) 2 Inst. 71. (m) 4 Inst. 266. [*467] *the elder (o) præpositus" (that is, the sheriff) "ad quartam circiter septimanam frequentem populi concionem celebrato: cuique jus dicito; litesque singulas dirimito." In those times the county court was a court of great dignity and splendour, the bishop and the ealdorman (or earl) with the principal men of the shire sitting therein to administer justice both in lay and ecclesiastical causes (p). But its dignity was much impaired, when the bishop was prohibited and the earl neglected to attend it (g). And the county court here treated of was at length deprived of its civil jurisdiction by the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95. The forest courts, although still existing, claim our attention by reason of their ancient rather than of their actual importance. We shall first notice them historically, and then briefly indicate the jurisdiction and powers which survive to them. Forest court. The forest courts (r) were instituted for the government of the king's forests in different parts of the kingdom, and for the punishment of injuries done to the king's deer or venison, to the vert of greens werd, and to the covert in which such deer are lodged. They included the courts of attachments, of regard, of sweinmote, and of justice-seat. The court of attachments, woodmote, or forty days' court, was to be held before the verderors of the forest once in every forty days (s); and was instituted to inquire concerning offenders against vert and venison (t); who might be attached by their bodies, if taken with the mainour (or mainœuvre, a manu), that is, in the very act of killing venison, or stealing wood, or preparing so to do, or by fresh and immediate pursuit after the act had been done (u); else they were attached by their goods. In this forty days' court the foresters or keepers were to [* 468] bring in their attachments, or presentments de viridi et venatione; and the verderors were to receive the same, to enrol them, and to certify them under their seals to the court of justice-seat, or sweinmote (v): for this court could only inquire of, but not convict, offenders. 2. The court of regard, or survey of dogs, was held every third year for the lawing or expeditation of mastiffs, which was done by cutting off the claws and ball (or pelote) of the fore-feet, to prevent them from running after deer (x). No other dogs but mastiffs were to be thus lawed or expeditated, for none others were permitted to be kept within the precincts of the forest, it being supposed that the keeping of these, and these only, was necessary for the defence of a man's house (y). 3. The court of sweinmote was held before the verderors, as judges, by the steward of the sweinmote thrice in every year (z), the sweins or freeholders within the forest composing the jury. The principal jurisdiction of this court was, first, to inquire into the oppressions and grievances committed by the officers of the forest; "de super-oneratione forestariorum, et aliorum ministrorum forestæ; et de eorum oppressionibus populo regis illatis," and, secondly, to receive and try presentments certified from the court of attachment against offences in vert and venison (a). And this court might not only inquire, but (0) C. 11. (p) Leg. Eadgar, c. 5. (q) F. N. B. 70; Finch. 446. (r) Ample historical details as to these courts and their jurisdictions are collected in the Report of the Royal New and Waltham Forests Commission, A. D. 1850, pp. 36-39, 52. (s) Cart de Forest, 9 Hen. 3, c. 8. (t) 4 Inst. 289. (u) Carth. 79. (v) Cart. de Forest. c. 16. (y) 4 Inst. 308. (2) Cart. de Forest. c. 8. convict also, any conviction thus had being certified to the court of justice-seat under the seals of the jury, for this court could not proceed to judgment (¿). But the principal court was:-4. The court of justice-seat, which was held before the chief justice in eyre, or chief itinerant judge, capitalis justitiarius in itinere, or his deputy, to hear and determine all trespasses within the forest, and all claims of franchises, liberties, and privileges, and all pleas and causes whatsoever therein arising (c). It might * also proceed to try pre[*469] sentments in the inferior courts of the forests, and to give judgment upon conviction of the sweinmote. And the chief justice might therefore after presentment made, or indictment found, but not before (d), issue his warrant to the officers of the forest to apprehend the offenders. It might be held every third year; and forty days' notice was to be given of its sitting. This court might fine and imprison for offences within the forest (e), it being a court of record: and therefore a writ of error lay from thence to the court of king's bench, to rectify and redress any mal-administration of justice (ƒ); or the chief justice in eyre might adjourn any matter of law into the court of king's bench (g). These justices in eyre were instituted by king Henry II., A. D. 1184 (h); and their courts were formerly very regularly held; but the last court of justice-seat of any note was that holden in the reign of Charles I., before the earl of Holland; the rigorous proceedings at which are reported by sir William Jones. After the restoration another was held, pro formá only, before the earl of Oxford (i); but since the æra of the Revolution in 1688, the forest laws fell much into disuse, to the great advantage of the subject. They are, however, administered in a mitigated form, and within very restricted geographical limits at the present day. There are, indeed, now only three royal forests existing in England, viz., the New Forest, Dean Forest, and that part of Waltham Forest called Epping Forest-all the other crown forests having been disafforested (k). The only court now held in the New Forest is practically (7) the court of [* 470] attachments held every forty days-* of which court the verderors, elected by the freeholders of the county, are the judges. The course of procedure observed there is briefly this. The presentment of an offence is made by the keeper of the walk in which it occurred at one court and is heard at the next ensuing court, one verderor being competent to receive the presentment, though two verderors are present at the hearing of the case (m). The court of attachments deals with wrongful inclosures, purprestures, encroachments, or trespasses (n); breaking down inclosures, burning heath or fern, destroying the covert, or stealing the wood of the forest (o). It deals also with offences in depasturing cattle, horses, or other beasts at improper times by those who have common of pasture at certain seasons within the boundaries of the forest; and it also has cognisance of the depasturing of beasts a court of sweinmote is held, but it differs in name only from the court of attachments. (m) One or more of the regarders of the forest also usually attend the court, but do not take any part in the proceedings. They ought to present any offence that may come to their knowledge. The regarders are elected by the freeholders of the county. (n) See 10 Geo. 4, c. 50, s. 100. |