acquiring or retaining possession of the property of the bankrupt in the same position as if he were a receiver appointed by the High Court. As to the liability of trustees (bbb).

As to the appointment and approval of trustee by Board of Trade, see Sect. 21.

And as to appeal from the Board of Trade to the High Court, see Sect. 139.

§§ 91,

92, 93.

PART VI.

CONSTITUTION, PROCEDURE, AND POWERS OF COURT.

Jurisdiction.

92. (1.) The Courts having jurisdiction in bankruptcy Jurisdiction to shall be the High Court and the County Courts.

be exercised by High Court

Act, 1869,

s. 79.

(2.) But the Lord Chancellor may from time to time, and County by order under his hand, exclude any County Court from Bankruptcy having jurisdiction in bankruptcy, and for the purposes. of bankruptcy jurisdiction may attach its district or any part thereof to the High Court, or to any other County Court or courts, and may from time to time revoke or vary any order so made. The Lord Chancellor may, in like manner and subject to the like conditions, detach the district of any County Court or any part thereof from the district and jurisdiction of the High Court.

(3.) The term " district," when used in this Act with reference to a County Court, means the district of the Court for the purposes of bankruptcy jurisdiction.

(4.) A County Court which, at the commencement of this Act, is excluded from having bankruptcy jurisdiction, shall continue to be so excluded until the Lord Chancellor otherwise orders.

(5.) Periodical sittings for the transaction of bankruptcy business by County Courts having jurisdiction in bankruptcy shall be holden at such times and at such intervals as the Lord Chancellor shall prescribe for each such Court.

93. (1.) From and after the commencement of this Consolidation (bbb) Levy v. Aymers, 38 L. T. 725; L. R. 3 App. Cas. 842.

of London

Bankruptcy

Court with

§8 93, 94. Act the London Bankruptcy Court shall be united and consolidated with and form part of the Supreme Court of Supreme Court Judicature, and the jurisdiction of the London Bankof Judicature. ruptcy Court shall be transferred to the High Court. Bankruptcy Act, 1869,

s. 61.

(2.) For the purposes of this union, consolidation, and transfer, and of all matters incidental thereto and consequential thereon, the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873, as amended by subsequent Acts, shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, have effect as if the union, consolidation, and transfer had been effected by that Act, except that all expressions referring to the time appointed for the commencement of that Act shall be construed as referring to the commencement of this Act, and, subject as aforesaid, this Act and the said above-mentioned Acts shall be read and construed together.

Transaction of 94. (1.) Subject to general rules, and to orders of transfer made under the authority of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873, and Acts amending it,

bankruptcy business by special judge of High Court.

(a.) All matters pending in the London Bankruptcy
Court at the commencement of this Act; and
(b.) All matters which would have been within the
exclusive jurisdiction of the London Bankruptcy
Court, if this Act had not passed; and

(c.) All matters in respect of which jurisdiction is
given to the High Court by this Act,

shall be assigned to such Division of the High Court as the Lord Chancellor may from time to time direct.

(2.) All such matters shall, subject as aforesaid, be ordinarily transacted and disposed of by or under the direction of one of the Judges of the High Court, and the Lord Chancellor shall from time to time assign a Judge for that purpose.

(3.) Provided that during vacation, or during the illness of the Judge so assigned, or during his absence, or other reasonable cause such matters, or any part

for any

thereof, may be transacted and disposed of by or under the directions of any Judge of the High Court named for that purpose by the Lord Chancellor.

(4.) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the officers, clerks, and subordinate persons who are, at the commencement of this Act, attached to the London Bankruptcy Court, and their successors, shall be officers of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and shall be attached to the High Court.

(5.) Subject to general rules, all bankruptcy matters shall be entitled, "In bankruptcy."

The district of a County Court for bankruptcy jurisdiction, is wider than the district for County Court jurisdiction as determined by the County Court Acts. The County Courts having bankruptcy jurisdiction at the time of the passing of the Act will, subject to such further order as may be made, continue to be the Courts exercising bankruptcy jurisdiction.

See Sect. 95 as to district in which petition should be presented.

For definition of the London Bankruptcy district, see Sect. 96.

For the transfer of proceedings from Court to Court, see Sect. 97.

For the purposes of its bankruptcy jurisdiction the County. Court, in addition to its ordinary powers, has all the powers and jurisdiction of the High Court, and its orders may be enforced accordingly. (Sect. 100.)

The Judicature Act, 1873, s. 3, united and consolidated the then existing Superior Courts, including the London Court of Bankruptcy into one Supreme Court of Judicature, and Sect. 16 transferred the business of the Court to the High Court. But by Sects. 9 and 33 of the Judicature Act of 1875, so much of the Act of 1873 as related to the Bankruptcy Court was repealed, and the Court was left a separate Court; and Sect. 9 of the Judicature Act, 1875, provided that the office of Chief Judge in Bankruptcy should be filled by a Judge of the High Court.

The effect of Sect. 93 of this Act is again to unite and

8 94.

§ 94.

consolidate the London Bankruptcy Court with the Supreme Court, and to transfer its jurisdiction to the High Court.

And Sect. 100 of this Act, as we have seen, also confers upon the County Courts exercising bankruptcy jurisdiction the powers and jurisdiction of the High Court.

The London Bankruptcy Court, therefore, once again is constituted one of the divisions of the Supreme Court, as if the union and consolidation and transfer had been effected under the Judicature Act of 1873 as subsequently amended; but the time appointed for the commencement of the Act for the purposes of such union is to be the time for the "commencement of the present Act," and subject thereto "this Act and the above-mentioned Acts shall be read and construed together." By Sect. 17 of the Judicature Act, 1873, it was provided that there should not be transferred to or vested in the High Court of Justice any appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal in Chancery, or of the same Court sitting as a Court of Appeal in Bankruptcy.

And by Sect. 18, the Court of Appeal established by the Act was declared to be a Superior Court of Record, and there was transferred to and vested in such Court all the powers and jurisdiction of the Courts inter alia," All jurisdiction and powers of the Lord Chancellor and of the Court of Appeal in Chancery in the exercise of his and its appellate jurisdiction and of the same Court as a Court of Appeal in Bankruptcy." And it was held under the construction of this section, that the Court of Appeal had no power to rehear an appeal from the High Court (c). And it was doubtful whether it had any power to rehear a bankruptcy appeal (d).

The rights of parties with respect to appeals will now be regulated by the provisions of Sect. 104. See General Rules; and see R. S. C. Ord. 58.

By the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1881, Sect. 2, the Master of the Rolls after the passing of that Act ceased to be a Judge of the High Court, but by virtue of his office continued to be a Judge of the Court of Appeal, retaining the same rank, title, salary, right, pension, patronage, powers,

(c) Flower v. Lloyd, 6 Ch. D. 297, C. A.

(d) Ex parte Banco de Portugal, Re Hooper, 14 Ch. D. 1, C. A. But see s. 104, as to appeals and the power of

every Court to review, rescind, or vary its orders. And a Judge can always reconsider his decision before an order is drawn up, Re St. Nazaire Co., 12 Ch. D., at p. 91, Jessel, M.R.

privileges and disqualifications belonging to the office, and also all other duties of the said office, except that of a Judge of the High Court of Justice.

Section 94 (subject to the Judicature Act, 1873, and to general rules and orders of transfer made thereunder), transfers all bankruptcy business pending in the London Bankruptcy Court, or otherwise, and all bankruptcy business in respect of which this Act gives jurisdiction to the High Court to such division of the High Court as the Lord Chancellor may direct, with power to assign a Judge of the High Court to be a Judge of such division.

For the respective Divisions of the High Court and the Judges of such Divisions, see Judicature Act, 1873, Sect. 31, one of the clauses of which section is as follows::

"Any Judge of any of the said Divisions may be transferred by Her Majesty, under her royal sign manual, from one to another of the said divisions."

Sect. 36 of the Judicature Act, 1873, is as follows :

:

"Any cause or matter may at any time and at any stage thereof, and either with or without application from any of the parties thereto, be transferred by such authority and in such manner as Rules of Court may direct from one division or Judge of the High Court of Justice to any other division or Judge thereof, or may, by the like authority be retained in the division in which the same was commenced, although such may not be the proper division to which the same cause or matter ought in the first instance to have been assigned."

Order 49 of the Rules of the Supreme Court, 1883, Rules 1, 2, 3, 4, prescribe the mode of transfer (e).

It would seem to be the intention of the Legislature by the employment of the words "subject to the general rules and to orders of transfer made under the authority of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873, and Acts amending it," that where any matter before any one of the divisions is deemed to be more strictly within the bankruptcy jurisdiction, the Judge may transfer such matter, and vice versa.

The 12th Sect. of the Judicature Act, 1881, enables any Judge, in cases of urgency, who consents to do so, to sit for another, and to hear and dispose of applications for injunctions or other interlocutory matters.

solidation of causes, &c., see Or. 50,

(e) And as to orders for administration of assets, Or. 49, r. 5; and r. 8. Or. 50, rr. 3, 4, 6, 11. As to con

§ 94.