Award of inclosure.

Award as to inclosure of common lands made under the General Inclosure Act, 1845. Proved by a copy purporting to be sealed with the seal of the Board of Commissioners under the Act (q), or by a copy or extract signed by the clerk of the peace of the county in which the lands lie, or his deputy, purporting the same to be a true copy (r).

Award under General Inclosure Act. 1845

Bankruptcy, proceedings in. Provable in litigation in the same manner as other proceedings in Courts (q.v.), and also by copies certified as required by the various Bankruptcy Acts (s). Under the present Bankruptcy Act, a receiving order or an adjudication of bankruptcy is also conclusively proved by production of a copy of the London Gazette containing a notice thereof (t); the appointment of a trustee is proved by the certificate of appointment (u); and the proceedings at a statutory meeting of creditors are proved by a minute signed at the same or the next meeting by a person describing himself as or appearing to be the chairman of the meeting at which the minute is signed (x). On sales, office copies are accepted as evidence, whether receivable as evidence in Court, or not (y).

Bankruptcy.

(p) Stats. 41 Geo. III. c. 109, s. 35; 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 87,8. 2.

(q) These Commissioners were first styled the Inclosure Commissioners for England and Wales; after 1882 they were styled the Land Commissioners; and on the 12th August, 1889. their powers and duties were transferred to the Board of Agriculture; stats. 8 & 9 Vict. c. 118, s. 2: 45 & 46 Vict. c. 38, s. 48; 52 & 53 Vict. c. 30, s. 2. See note (k) to p. 146, above.

(r) Stat. 8 & 9 Vict. c. 118, ss. 2, 146.

(s) Stats. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 52, ss. 134, 137; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 71, ss. 107 - 109; 24 & 25 Vict. c. 134, ss. 203 sq.; 12 & 13 Vict. 0. 106, ss. 232 sq.; I & 2 Will. IV. c. 56, b. 29; 6 Geo. IV. c. 16, s. 97.

(t) Stat. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 52, s. 132.

(u) Sect. 54 (4).

10(2)

Copyholds, assurances of. The law regards the court rolls of a manor as a public document (z), and so permits entries therein to be proved either by production of the rolls (a), by examined copies (b) or by copies signed by the steward (c), such as are always delivered to the tenants on the completion of a transaction acknowledging their title (d). According to the strict rule of the common law, the last-mentioned mode of proof was incomplete without evidence of the steward's handwriting, unless the copy were thirty years old at least (e) and came from the proper custody (f). But entries in court rolls are provable under the Evidence Act, 1851 (g), by copies purporting to be signed and certified as true copies by the officer to whose custody the originals are entrusted, that is, as a rule, the steward. On sales of copyholds, the assurances entered on the court rolls are usually proved by copies thereof signed by the steward, and it is not the practice to require any proof of the steward's handwriting (h), copies purporting to be signed by the steward being accepted as genuine, unless there be some reason for suspecting their authenticity (i). A vendor of copyholds is as a rule bound to procure proper copies of court roll signed by the steward for verification of the abstract; he cannot require the vendor to go and compare the abstract with the original rolls (k): but, under the Conveyancing Act, 1881 (l), the purchaser will be obliged to pay the expense of obtaining such copies, if not in the vendor's possession.

Copyholds.

(x) Stat. 46 & 47 Viet. c. 52, s. 133.

(y) Sug. V. & P. 417; 1 Dart, V. & P. 318, 5th ed.; 361, 6th ed.

(z) Taylor, Evidence, Sec. 1433, 1438, 5th ed.

(a) Doe d. Bennington v. Hall, 16 East, 208.

(b) Doe d. Cawthorn v. Mee, 4 B. & Ad. 617; Doe d. Burrows v. Freeman, 12 M. & W. 844; Breeze v. Hawker, 14 Sim. 350.

(c) 1 Scriv. Cop. 590, 3rd ed.

(d) Williams, Real Prop. 375, 13th ed.; 484, 21st ed.

(e) Above, p. 116.

(f) 1 Scriv. Cop. 591, 3rd ed.; 2 Wat. Cop. 39, n., 4th ed.; Wynne v. Tyrwhitt, 4 B. & Ald. 376.

(g) Stat. 14 & 15 Vict. c. 99, s. 14; Taylor, Evidence, Sec. 1437, 1438, 5th ed.; above, p. 122.

(h) Sug. V. & P. 417; 1 Dart, V. & P. 310, 311, 5th ed.; 351, 6th ed.; 346, 347, 7th ed.

Courts of justice, records and proceedings of. As a rule, these are provable in litigation (1) by production of the original, which is usually inconvenient; or (2) by an exemplification, or its equivalent; or (3) by an examined copy (m). As we have seen (m), a copy made by an officer of the Court bound by law to make it is equivalent to an exemplification: whilst office copies, or copies made by an officer of the Court who is authorised by rule of Court but not required by law to make them, are not at common law equivalent to an exemplification, save in the same Court and cause, in which the proceeding occurred (n). But office copies of all writs, records, pleadings and documents filed in the High Court of Justice are admissible in evidence to the same extent as the original (o). Besides the above modes of proof, there are various particular cases in which the proceedings of Courts are by Statute provable in litigation by copies certified as required by the Act (p). For example, proceedings in bankruptcy (q) and orders in lunacy (r) are now provable in this way. And under the Evidence Act, 1851 (s), the proceedings of courts of justice not provable by copies under any other Statute appear to be provable by certified copies (t). The records of the Courts deposited in the Record Office are also provable as records under the charge of the Master of the Rolls (u). On sales, however, the practice is to accept office copies as evidence, whether the same would be receivable in evidence on litigation or not (x).

Courts, proceedings of.

Office copies.

(i) See above, p. 118.

(k) Sug. V. & P. 131; 1 Dart, V. .v P. 311, 5th ed.; 352, 6th ed.; 347, 7th ed., where it is submitted that the vendor will dis-charge his obligation, if he can produce the original rollls at the proper place for verification of the abstract, and satisfactorily account for the absence of the copies of court roll from time to time delivered to the tenants.