8

SEALS JUDICIALLY NOTICED.

now abolished; of the High Court of Admiralty (g); of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (h), and of the court of the Vice Warden of the Stannaries (i); the seals of all courts constituted by Act of Parliament, if seals are given to them by the act (j), and therefore the seals of the Insolvent Debtors' Court (k), the Court of Bankruptcy (1), and the local courts for the recovery of small debts (m). They will also judicially notice the seal of the corporation of London (n), and the seal of a notarypublic, he being an officer recognised by the whole commercial world (o). Several other seals are rendered admissible in evidence, without proof of their genuineness, by the express language of particular statutes; and among them may be noticed the seal of

(g) Green v. Waller, 2 Lord Raym. 893.

(h) Kempton v. Cross, Rep. tem. Hardw. 108.

(i) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 106, § 19.

(j) Doe v. Edwards, 1 P. & Dav. 408; 9 A. & E. 554, S.C.

(4) Id. This case was decided on the 76th section of the act of 7 Geo. 4, c. 57, which enacts that copies of the petition, schedule, and other proceedings in the Insolvent Debtors' Court, purporting to be signed by the officer, &c., “and sealed with the seal of the said court," shall be admitted "without any proof whatever given of the same, further than that the same is sealed with the seal of the said court." It applies, therefore, à fortiori, to the 19th section of the same act, which provides that assignments to and by provisional assignees shall be filed of record, and that copies of such records, purporting to have the certificate of the provisional assignee, or his deputy, endorsed thereon, "and to be sealed with the seal of the said court," shall be evidence; and also to the act of 1 & 2 Vict., c. 110, §§ 46, 105, which enacts, that copies of the proceedings shall be evidence, so far as this requisite is concerned, simply on their "purporting to be sealed with the seal of the said court." See also 5 & 6 Vict., c. 116, § 11.

(7) 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 56, § 28 ; 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 114, § 9, which last act provides, that" upon the production in evidence of any commission, fiat, adjudication, assignment, appointment of assignees, certificate, deposition, or other proceeding in bankruptcy, purporting to be sealed with the seal of the said Court of Bankruptcy, or of any writing purporting to be a copy of any such document, and purporting to be sealed as aforesaid, the same shall be received as evidence of such documents respectively, and of the same having been so entered of record as aforesaid, without any further proof thereof." See 5 & 6 Vict., c. 122, §§ 25, 37, 39, 42, and 43; and 8 & 9 Vict., c. 113, cited post, § 7.

(m) 9 & 10 Vict., c. 95, §§ 3, 57, and 111.

(n) Doe v. Mason, 1 Esp. 53, per Lord Kenyon.

(0) Anon., 12 Mod. 345; Bayley on Bills, 487. See also 6 Geo. 4, c. 16, § 124; Hutcheon v. Mannington, 6 Ves. 823; and Furnell v. Stackpoole, Milw. Eccl. Ir. R. temp. Radcliffe, 485, 486.

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ACT.

the board of poor law commissioners (p); of the general register office (q); of the office of the registrar of designs for articles of manufacture (r); and of the record office (s).

§ 7. The principle recognised by these acts having been found in practice to be productive of highly beneficial results, it has been recently extended to a numerous class of cases by the Documentary Evidence Act (t). This statute, after reciting that-"Whereas it is provided by many statutes that various certificates, official and public documents, documents and proceedings of corporations and of joint-stock and other companies, and certified copies of documents, bye-laws, entries in registers and other books, shall be receivable in evidence of certain particulars in courts of justice, provided they be respectively authenticated in the manner prescribed by such statutes: And whereas the beneficial effect of these provisions has been found by experience to be greatly diminished by the difficulty of proving that the said documents are genuine; and it is expedient to facilitate the admis

(p) 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, § 3, enacts, that "all rules, orders, and regulations made by the commissioners in pursuance of that act, or copies thereof, purporting to be sealed or stamped with the seal of the said board, shall be received as evidence of the same respectively, without any further proof thereof; and no such rule, order, or regulation, or copy thereof, shall be valid, or have any force or effect, unless the same shall be sealed or stamped as aforesaid." See. 10 ttice 1198.5 14.2. Vicc 56.81ida; stuke e. 900.3, h (q) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 86, § 38. "All certified copies of entries, purporting to be sealed or stamped with the seal of the said register-office, shall be received as evidence." See 3 & 4 Vict., c. 92, § 9.

(r) 5 & 6 Vict., c. 100, § 16; and 6 & 7 Vict., c. 65, §§ 6, 7.

(s) 1 & 2 Vict., c. 94, § 11, enacts, that a seal shall be provided; § 12 enacts, that copies of the records shall be examined and certified as true and authentic copies, by the deputy-keeper of the records, or one of the assistant record-keepers, and shall be sealed or stamped with the seal of the record office; § 13 enacts, that such copies, "certified as aforesaid, and purporting to be sealed or stamped with the seal of the record office, shall be received as evidence in all courts of justice, and before all legal tribunals, and before either House of Parliament, or any committee of either House, without any further or other proof thereof, in every case in which the original record could have been received there as evidence."

(t) 8 & 9 Vict., c. 113. The author of the present work naturally feels some satisfaction in referring to this statute, as he originally suggested to the Law Amendment Society the alterations embodied therein, and afterwards prepared the bill, which, under the protection of Lord Brougham, finally obtained the sanction of the legislature.

10

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ACT.

sion in evidence of such and the like documents: " enacts, "That whenever by any act now in force or hereafter to be in force, any certificate, official or public document, or document or proceeding of any corporation or joint-stock or other company, or any certified copy of any document, bye-law, entry in any register or other book, or of any other proceeding, shall be receivable in evidence of any particular in any court of justice, or before any legal tribunal, or either House of Parliament, or any committee of either House, or in any judicial proceeding, the same shall respectively be admitted in evidence, provided they respectively purport to be sealed or impressed with a stamp, or sealed and signed, or signed alone, as required, or impressed with a stamp and signed, as directed by the respective acts made or to be hereafter made, without any proof of the seal or stamp, where a seal or stamp is necessary, or of the signature, or of the official character of the person appearing to have signed the same, and without any further proof thereof in every case in which the original record could have been received in evidence" (u).

Sect. 2 enacts, "That all courts, judges, justices, masters in chancery, masters of courts, commissioners judicially acting, and other judicial officers, shall henceforth take judicial notice of the signature of any of the equity or common law Judges of the superior courts at Westminster, provided such signature be attached or appended to any decree, order, certificate, or other judicial or official document."

Sect. 3 enacts, "That all copies of private and local and personal acts of parliament not public acts, if purporting to be printed by the Queen's printers, and all copies of the journals of either House of Parliament, and of royal proclamations, purporting to be printed by the printers to the crown or by the printers to either House of Parliament, or by any or either of them, shall be admitted as evidence thereof by all courts, judges, justices, and

(u) The words after the last comma were introduced into the act while passing through the House of Commons. They appear to have been copied from the act of 1 & 2 Vict., c. 94, § 13 (see § 6, ante, note s), by some honourable member, who did not know distinctly what he was about.

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ACT.

11

others, without any proof being given that such copies were so printed."

Sect. 4 provides, "That if any person shall forge the seal, stamp, or signature of any certificate, official or public document, or document or proceeding of any corporation or joint-stock or other company, or of any certified copy of any document, byelaw, entry in any register or other book, or other proceeding as aforesaid, or shall tender in evidence any such certificate, official or public document, or document or proceeding of any corporation or joint-stock or other company, or any certified copy of any document, bye-law, entry in any register or other book, or of any other proceeding, with a false or counterfeit seal, stamp, or signature thereto, knowing the same to be false or counterfeit, whether such seal, stamp, or signature be those of or relating to any corporation or company already established, or to any corporation or company to be hereafter established, or if any person shall forge the signature of any such judge as aforesaid to any order, decree, certificate, or other judicial or official document, or shall tender in evidence any order, decree, certificate, or other judicial or official document with a false or counterfeit signature of any such judge as aforesaid thereto, knowing the same to be false or counterfeit, or if any person shall print any copy of any private act or of the journals of either House of Parliament (v), which copy shall falsely purport to have been printed by the printers to the Crown, or by the printers to either House of Parliament, or by any or either of them, or if any person shall tender in evidence any such copy, knowing that the same was not printed by the person or persons by whom it so purports to have been printed, every such person shall be guilty of felony, and shall upon conviction be liable to transportation for seven years, or to imprisonment for any term not more than three nor less than one year, with hard labour: PROVIDED ALSO, that whenever any such document as before mentioned shall have been received in evidence by virtue of this act, the court, judge, commissioner, or other

(v) The words, or of any royal proclamation," appear to have been accidentally omitted. They were introduced into the original draft of the bill.

12

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ACT.

person officiating judicially who shall have admitted the same, shall, on the request of any party against whom the same is so received, be authorised, at its or at his own discretion, to direct that the same shall be impounded, and be kept in the custody of some officer of the court or other proper person, until further order touching the same shall be given, either by such court, or the court to which such master or other officer belonged, or by the persons or person who constituted such court, or by some one of the equity or common law Judges of the superior courts at Westminster, on application being made for that purpose."

Sect. 5 enacts, "That this act shall not extend to Scotland” (w).

§ 8. A somewhat nice question respecting the meaning of the word "journals," as used in the third section of this act, has recently been raised in a case at Nisi Prius (a). An action for work and labour was brought by an engineer against the director of a railway company, and the defence was, that the plans and sections deposited by the plaintiff had not been drawn in accordance with the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, and that, consequently, the work was valueless. In order to establish this case, it became necessary to prove the Standing Orders, and with this view, the defendant's counsel tendered in evidence a book, which purported to contain the Standing Orders of the House of Commons from 1685 to 1846 inclusive, and to be printed and published by Luke James Hansard, by permission of the Right Hon. Charles Shaw Lefevre, Speaker. The Court was then called upon to take judicial notice, that these orders were the resolutions of the House, and as such were entered on their journals; and it was argued, that the book produced being a copy of extracts from these journals, must be regarded in the same light as a copy of the entire journals; that the act, if reasonably

(w) §§ 6 & 7 are merely formal and immaterial.

(x) Pritchard v. Black, 21st June, 1847; Ex., coram Platt, B., MS. It is a pity that Mr. Hansard, in publishing the Standing Orders and other documents of the House of Commons, does not state in the title-page his official character. The Standing Orders of the Lords purport to be "printed by Geo. E. Eyre and Wm. Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty."