PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TELEC.O. 885
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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intents and purposes and as fully as if the said treaty or other obligation had been enacted verbatim and made binding on Canada and on all persons therein by the British North America Act, 1867."
The Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G.
&c.
&o.
&c.
We have, &c. (Signed)
R. P. COLLIER. J. D. COLERIDGE. TRAVERS TWISS.
18006.
SIR,
No. 613.
(Babamas.)
TREASURY SOLICITOR to TREASURY.
Solicitors' Department, Treasury, November 17, 1869.
I HAVE received your letter of 23rd October transmitting, by direction of their Lordships, a letter of 20th October from the Colonial Office with inclosures respecting the cost incurred in the case of the "Salvador" in the Vice Admiralty Court at the Bahamas, and asking whether the payment of these expenses might not be deferred for the present, pending the judgment of the Committee of the Privy Council on the appeal, of which notice has been given, because in the event of the judgment being reversed the costs of the original prosecution (it is suggested) might be properly payable by the owners of the “Salvador."
Their Lordships are also pleased to desire my opinion as to the propriety of the fees charged, so far as it is in my power to form an opinion upon the subject.
It will be oberved that at the conclusion of the judgment the judge points out the suspicious circumstances that led to the seizure, and therefore, though he orders the restitution of the vessel, he declines to give any costs or damages.
These accounts therefore of moneys payable to the judge, the deputy judge, the registrar, &c., to which their Lordships refer, are not costs (in the sense in which the word is commonly used in this country) payable by a defeated suitor to his adversary, and which the adversary might be liable to repay in case the judgment should be reversed on appeal, but the bills in fact consist of fees payable to the judge, registrar, &c. upon motions of the Attorney General upon issuing mandates for the compulsory attendance of witnesses on the part of the Crown for their examination by the registrar, and others of a similar sort.
They are fees of a character entirely unknown in the courts at Westminster, and which I presume (though I speak with diffidence) would be payable by the Crown whether successful or not.
And if this is so I should imagine that whatever the result of the appeal might be, these fees would be still payable by the Crown for the matters done apparently at the instance of the Crown by the judge and other officers of the court.
Indeed I should almost infer from the letter of the Colonial Office (wherein the pendency of the appeal is notified to my Lords) that no doubt is entertained there that the liability of the Crown to the payment of these fees will be unaffected by the appeal. Some information, however, about this might possibly be sought in the Colony, that is to say, the Attorney General might be asked whether if the Crown had been successful these fees would still have been payable to the judge and registrar, &c. or would have been cast upon the claimant if the judgment had been the other way, that is to if the seizure had been sustained, and the claimant condemned in costs?
With respect to the last question as to the propriety and amount of the fees, I regret that I am unable to offer any opinion. There is nothing in the practice of the courts at Westminster which furnishes the least guide.
Bay,
But here again I venture to think that the Attorney General might be asked whether these fees (which are tolerably uniform in their amount) are in accordance with scales legally established in the Islands, and properly payable by the Crown!
I dm, &c. (Signed) JOHN GREENWOOD.
The Secretary, Treasury.
• 14975.-896, 95.—5/86.