may be, a petition of appeal will be presented to the House of Lords against the decree (or order) pronounced in this cause on

day of Solicitor for the plaintiff or defendant.

solicitor for the defendant or plaintiff.

The notice should accurately specify the several orders intended to be appealed from; because the intention of the standing order is, that the respondent shall, on receiving such notice, proceed to prepare his printed case; and if there be any error in the notice, so as to mislead him into extra costs, he will be entitled to demand such

But, as will afterwards

extra costs from the appellant. appear, the respondent should abstain from incurring any serious expense, till the recognizance of the appellant shall have been perfected.

Care must be taken that the notice be given to all parties whom it is intended to make respondents. In the case of Haig v. Homan, 12th Dec. 1837, the appeal was rejected at the Parliament Office, in consequence of its not appearing by the certificate, that notice had been given to all the parties respondent, as required by the standing order.

The standing order requiring, not only that notice shall be given, but that the giving thereof shall be certified by endorsement on the back of the appeal; it behoves the appellant's solicitor to do the thing, or cause the thing to be done, in such manner as to admit of his truly stating, or of the party who gave the notice truly stating, as follows:

E. F., of

solicitor, or G. H., clerk to E. F., of

solicitor for the within-named appellant, A. B.; hereby certifies that on the day of he served a notice on Mr. G-, the solicitor of the

within-named respondent, D. E., that, on the

day of

or as

soon afterwards as might be, a petition of appeal would be presented to the House of Lords on behalf of the said appellant, against the decree or order within complained of. Dated, &c.

E. F.

If it happen from any cause that there is not time to give notice to the respondent, a petition may be presented to the House in behalf of the appellant, signed by the appellant, or by his solicitor, if the appellant himself be absent, praying leave to present the appeal, and that the same may be allowed to lie on the table, till notice shall have been given to the respondent; and until a certificate thereof be endorsed on the back of the appeal, as required by the standing order. The House, in order that the party may not be excluded from the benefit of his appeal, by the expiration of the time limited for presenting it, will allow the appeal to be presented as prayed; but no order will be issued for the respondent to answer, until the necessary certificate of notice shall have been endorsed on the back of the appeal.

This course was adopted in the case of Hay v. Scott, 21st May, 1812, where the appeal having arrived in London in due time, but without any certificate of notice endorsed thereon, a petition in the name and on the behalf of the appellant was thereupon presented to the House, praying that the appeal might, in the mean time, be allowed to lie on the table, until notice should be given, and until the necessary certificate should be procured. This petition was referred to the appeal committee; but before any report made, a certificate of notice arrived, and was endorsed on the appeal in the Parliament Office; whereupon it was ordered, that the appeal should be received; and an order was issued, in the usual way, requiring the respondent to put in his answer.

In general, it may be observed, that incidental petitions of this sort, signed by solicitors or agents, to be presented before the appeal has been actually received by the House, ought to be confined to the immediate and particular object in view; viz., the mere presentation of

the appeal; and should not extend to other matters more properly the subject of an application emanating directly from the parties interested. Thus in the case of Ball v. Beresford, 6th February, 1821; upon the petition of the appellant's agent, praying that under the circumstances of the case, further time, until the 19th of the then instant February, might be granted to the appellants to present their appeal, and to enable them to give the usual notice to the respondent in Ireland; the appeal committee having heard the agents thereon, reported their opinion, that inasmuch " as the appellants had not signed the said petition in their own names, as they ought to have done, by the rules of the House, the same ought to stand dismissed."

In such a case, I apprehend, the agent's petition ought simply to have prayed that the appeal, as it stood, might be presented and allowed to lie on the table, until the necessary notice should be given, and the necessary certificate be procured and endorsed on the appeal. To say that in all cases of this sort, the petition for leave to present the appeal must be signed by the appellant himself, would be to lay down a rule, not only extremely inconvenient, but in opposition to the established practice of the House; there being nothing more common (when the time limited for presenting an appeal is nearly expired), than for agents, in the appellant's absence, to present a petition on his behalf, in their own names, praying leave to present the appeal.

K

PRACTICE

ON

ENGLISH AND IRISH APPEALS.

CHAPTER THE SIXTH.

The Petition of Appeal.

Form of the Appeal, 131-Counsel's Signature, 133, and Certificate of reasonable cause, 134.-Precedents for enforcing the Standing Orders against Counsel, 135.-Forging Counsel's names to an Appeal, 137.Engrossment of the Appeal, 138.

THE petition of appeal, which must be prepared by Counsel, consists generally of six parts. The first part is the address to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled. The second part states the names of the complainants, their descriptions, and their abodes; so that the House and the respondents may know whither to resort to compel obedience to any orders which may be issued from time to time in course of the litigation. The third part states the proceedings in the Court below; reciting specially the decrees or orders complained of, and stating that they have been duly signed and enrolled. The fourth part states that the petitioner is advised that the said decrees or orders are erroneous, and that being aggrieved thereby, he appeals from the same to the House. The next and fifth part is the prayer of relief, which prays a reversal or

variance of the decrees or orders complained of, and concludes with a prayer of general relief at the discretion of the House. The appeal, sixthly and lastly, prays an order for the respondent to answer. I have not observed that the rank, or official position, of the party respondent occasions any difference or addition in this part of the appeal.

The form of the appeal, subject of course to variation according to circumstances, may be as follows:

To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in
Parliament assembled.

The humble Petition and Appeal of A. B., of

County of, Esquire;

in the

day of

Sheweth,―That your Petitioner, some time on or about the -, exhibited his bill of complaint in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery, against C. D., of -, Esq., stating that (here state the substance of the bill); and therefore praying that (here state the prayer of the bill). To which bill the said defendant, being duly served with process, appeared and put in his answer, insisting that (here state the substance of the Answer). That your petitioner having filed his replication, and served subpoena to rejoin, the cause was at issue, and divers witnesses having been examined on both sides, the same came on to be heard before the Right Honourable Charles Christopher Baron Cottenham, of Cottenham, in the county of Cambridge, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, as well on the as on the and days Whereupon, and upon debate of the matter, his Lordship did, on the day of think fit, and so ordered and decreed, that (here set forth the decree at length); which decree was signed and enrolled in the High Court of Chancery, on the day of, 1840.

day of

1840

That your petitioner is advised and hud justice; and being agdecree is erroneous, and contrary to equity conceives that the said y

and

grieved thereby, your petitioner appeals from the same to your Lordships, humbly praying

That your Lordships will be pleased to reverse, vary, or alter the said decrees and that your petitioner may have such further and other relief in the premises, as to the House, in your Lordships' great wisdom, may seem meet. And that an order may be issued, requiring the said C. D.. to put in his answer to this your petitioner's appeal, and that service of such order on the said C. D.'s solicitor or clerk in court in the said cause may be deemned good service.

a