COURT OF APPEAL
> History
Click here
for the History of the Building
Prior to 1975 both trial and appeal superior court functions
were discharged by a single unit court, the Supreme Court of
Newfoundland. Each of the individual judges could and did sit as
a trial judge. In the case of an appeal from that judge’s
decision the other judges sat together (en banc) to hear it.
Thus, until 1975 the history of the Supreme Court of
Newfoundland and Labrador, Court of Appeal, and of the Supreme
Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Trial Division, is common to
both.
We are indebted to two judges for a good deal of the history of
the development of judicature in this, the earliest of British
colonial acquisitions. D.W. Prowse was a late nineteenth century
judge of the Central District Court of Newfoundland. His history
of Newfoundland is regarded as a classic. John Reeves is the
first person to hold the office of Chief Justice of
Newfoundland. In addition to the contribution he made to the
development of a system of judicature in Newfoundland, he also
made a quite significant contribution as a recorder of history.
In 1793 he wrote and published “History of the Government of
Newfoundland”.
While historic events between European discovery in 1497 and
1791, impacting upon the development of a system of judicature,
or the prevention of its development, have a significant bearing
and are intrinsically interesting, the real beginning point of
the history of this Court is the passage by the United Kingdom
Parliament of the Judicature Act of 1791. The statute was a
response to the recommendation of the United Kingdom Committee
of Council for Trade. The statute had a life span of one year
and the court it created had limited jurisdiction. It was to be
a court of civil jurisdiction “… to hear and determine, in a
summary way, all pleas of debt, account, contracts respecting
personal property, and all trespasses against the person or
goods and chattels…” The court was to be a court of record, “…
with all such powers as by the law of England are incident and
belonging to a court of record.”
It was to this court that John Reeves was first appointed as
Chief Judge. His appointment was by the Crown and he was to sit
with two assessors to be appointed by the Governor. The Chief
Judge and either one of the assessors could exercise the
jurisdiction of the court. It was a very modest beginning, but
by comparison with progress toward justice in the preceding
nearly three hundred years, it was a great leap forward.
The 1791 statute appears to have been a temporary measure,
designed to give the law officers the time they needed to
prepare and present to Parliament a bill to create a proper
court. Such a bill was presented the very next year. That
resulted in the creation of The Supreme Court of Judicature of
the Island of Newfoundland. That court was created as a court of
criminal and civil jurisdiction,
“… with full power and authority to hold plea of all crimes
and misdemeanours committed on the island of Newfoundland, and on
the islands and seas to which ships and vessels repair from the
island of Newfoundland … in the same manner as plea is holden … in
England … and full power and authority to hold plea … of all suits
and complaints of a civil nature … and determine such … according to
the law of England …”
The Act also provided for the appointment of surrogate courts “… in
different parts of the island of Newfoundland …” The court was to have a
chief justice appointed by the Crown. The first Chief Justice was John
Reeves. However, like the 1791 Court, its statutory life was one year.
In his report, filed after the first year, Chief Justice Reeves wrote
that “The great and pressing evil at Newfoundland, has been, and still
is, the want of a firm and regular administration of justice.” He went
on to express the view that the experiment with the courts of 1791 and
1792 was a success and the court should now be made perpetual. The
legislation was renewed each year until 1809 when it was made perpetual.
A new Judicature Act was passed by the UK Parliament in 1824. The court
to be instituted under that Act was to have: “all civil and criminal
jurisdiction whatever in Newfoundland…” and was to have that
jurisdiction “as fully and amply, to all intents and purposes, as His
Majesty’s Courts of King’s Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer and High Court
of Chancery in … England have … and be a Court of Oyer and Terminer…”
In other words, it was to have the totality of the jurisdiction
possessed by all the trial courts of England. The Royal Charter, of
1825, which brought into being the court authorized by the 1824 Act,
defined the nature and character of the Supreme Court of this
jurisdiction, as it existed from that date until 1975. During that
period it was styled the “Supreme Court of Newfoundland”.
By the Judicature Amendment Act of 1974 provision was made for the
continuation of the Court in two divisions, “an appeal division to be
called the Court of Appeal” and “a Trial Division”. At that time the
Court of Appeal was constituted of three judges, the Chief Justice of
Newfoundland and Labrador and two other judges of appeal. It started
operation as a separate division in 1975.
Today the Court has six judges, and occasionally more, should one or
more judges, otherwise entitled to retire, choose to stay on in a
supernumerary status. The current version of the Judicature Act, being
chapter J-4 of the 1990 Revised Statutes, specifies that the Court is
continued with all civil and criminal jurisdiction conferred by the 1824
Judicature Act and the 1825 Royal Charter. There is no doubt, however,
that its real beginning was the temporary 1791 Judicature Act, which led
to “The Supreme Court of Judicature for the Island of Newfoundland”,
brought into being in 1792. |
