The Court of Pleas of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge, sometimes called the Court of Pleas or Common Pleas of or at Durham was a court of common pleas that exercised jurisdiction within the

County Palatine of Durham The County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge, commonly referred to as County Durham or simply Durham, is a historic county in Northern England. Until 1889, it was controlled by powers granted under the Bishopric of Durham. The county and Northum ...

(including the wapentake of Sadberge) until its jurisdiction was transferred to the High Court by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873. Before the transfer of its jurisdiction, this tribunal was next in importance to the Chancery of Durham. The Court of Pleas probably developed from the free court of the Bishop of Durham. The Court of Pleas was clearly visible as a distinct court, separate from the Chancery, in the thirteenth century.

Judges

The judges who went the

Northern Circuit {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The Northern Circuit is a court circuit in England. It dates from 1176 when Henry II sent his judges on circuit to do justice in his name. The Circuit encompassed the whole of the North of England but in 1876 i ...

, and to whom a commission to take the

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

at Durham was directed, were judges of the court, and continued to be so, until another commission, directed to other judges, was issued for the next subsequent assizes; during which time, besides trying causes at the assizes, they held courts from time to time in London, for the purpose of granting and deciding upon rules, etc. And the judges of the court for the time being could make rules for regulating the proceedings in actions, and the mode and time of pleading; or they or any two of them could adopt any such rules made by any of the

superior courts at Westminster Certain former courts of England and Wales have been abolished or merged into or with other courts, and certain other courts of England and Wales have fallen into disuse. For nearly 300 years, from the time of the Norman Conquest until 1362, Frenc ...

Officers

The prothonotary and his deputy were the principal officers on the civil side of the court; and his office at Durham was in fact the office of the court, where all the business out of court was transacted. The prothonotary had to keep three books; one, called the remembrance book, where the writs of pone and rules of court were entered; another, for entering the writs of summons and the appearances; and the third was an index of the names of the defendants in the two former. The justices of the court could regulate the fees to be taken by the officers, and by the attorneys.

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the Court of Pleas of Durham inside the county palatine included jurisdiction similar to the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster and the Court of King's Bench. Nothing contained in section 1 of the

Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 The Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will 4 c 19) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the temporal authority of the Bishop of Durham within the County Palatine of Durham, placing the county under lay administ ...

prejudiced or affected the jurisdiction of this court.

Procedure

As to practice and proceedings in the Court of Pleas in Durham, see the Act 2 & 3 Vict c 16 (sometimes called Court of Pleas of Durham Act 1839), the

Common Law Procedure Act 1852 Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

(15 & 16 Vict c 76), section 100 of the

Common Law Procedure Act 1854 Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

(17 & 18 Vict c 125), and the Common Law Procedure Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict c 126). Appeal An appeal lay from this court to the Queen's Bench.

Costs

From 1839, the practice and proceedings in the Court of Pleas of the county palatine of Durham and Sadberge, were in a main degree assimilated to those in the three Courts of Law at Westminster. The costs for preparing pleadings in actions here, were by express enactment made the same as those of a like description in the Superior Courts. Provisions were made as to the costs with respect to the admission upon the trial of written and printed documents, and copies; taxation of costs; costs on paying money into Court; fees to the officers; costs on motions for new trials in the Superior Courts; on removal of judgments; removal of causes; on writs of false judgment; and as to the expenses of witnesses; and any rule of Court made here, could be made a rule of any of the Superior Courts of Law at Westminster.

Relevant legislation

See section 86 of the

County Courts Act 1856 A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

(19 & 20 Vict c 108). According to Baxter (Note 61 at p 173), the principal statutes relating to Durham and its Court of Pleas included, amongst others, the following: As to the process of Exigent in Durham, see the Act 31 Eliz 1 c 9. As to judgment in the Court of Pleas of Durham, see the Act 8 Geo 1 c 25 and the

Judgments Act 1838 Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...

(1 & 2 Vict c 110). As to taking oaths and affidavits in Durham, see the Act 4 Geo 3 c 21 As to order of Court of Pleas for examination of witnesses and interrogatories, see the

Evidence by Commission Act 1831 Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

(1 Will 4 c 22). As to palatine jurisdiction and jura regalia transferred to the Crown, see the

(6 & 7 Will 4 c 19). As to the appointment of Custos rotulorum in Durham, see the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will 4 c 19). As to duties and salaries of Clerks of the Crown in Durham, see the

Criminal Justice Act 1856 In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

(19 & 20 Vict c 118). As to transfer of jura regalia of Durham to Crown, see the

Durham County Palatine Act 1858 The Durham County Palatine Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict c 45) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Preamble The preamble was repealed by section 9(2) of, and Part I of thThird Scheduleto, the Crown Estate Act 1961. Section 1 – Defi ...

(21 & 22 Vict c 45).

Transfer of jurisdiction to the High Court

Section 16(10) of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 provided that "there shall be transferred to and vested in" the "High Court of Justice the jurisdiction which, at the commencement of this Act, was vested in, or capable of being exercised by" the Court of Pleas at Durham. This provision was repealed and replaced by section 18(2)(a)(vi) of the

Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925 The Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925, sometimes referred to as the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1925, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 99 This section was replaced by section 84 of the Supreme C ...

, which was to the same effect. As to prothonotaries, district prothonoataries and other officers of the Court of Pleas, see section 78 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873.William Thomas Charley, The New System of Practice and Pleading under the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts 1873, 1875, 1877, the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, and the Rules of the Supreme Court, Third Edition
p 186
/ref>

References

{{Reflist *Kenneth Emsley and Constance Mary Fraser. The Courts of the County Palatine of Durham from the Earliest Times to 1971. Durham County Local History Society. Durham. 1984. *John Frederick Archbold. A Summary of the Laws of England: In Four Volumes. Shaw and Sons. Fetter Lane, London. 1848. Volume 1. Page
184
to 200. *William Fordyce. "Court of Pleas". The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. A Fullerton & Co. 1857. Volume 1
Page 367
*William Whellan & Co. "Court of Pleas". History, Topography and Directory of the County Palatine of Durham. Whittaker & Co. London. Galt & Co. Manchester. 1856
p 174
*William Parson and William White. History, Directory and Gazetteer, of the Counties of Durham and Northumberland. Printed for W White & Co by Edward Baines and Son. 1827. Volume 1
Page 187
1828. *Gailard Thomas Lapsley. The County Palatine of Durham: A Study in Constitutional History. (Harvard Historical Studies, volume 8). 1900. Pages 204 to 206. Internet Archive

*Wynne E Baxter. The Law and Practice of the Supreme Court of Judicature. Butterworths. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. London. 1874. Pages 10, 30, 52, 53, 65
173 (Note 61)
174, 181. *George Barclay Mansel. The Law and Practice as to Costs. Spettigue. London. 1840. Page
131
146, 164, 192. *Samuel Prentice. Chitty's Archbold's Practice of the Court of Queen's Bench in Personal Actions and Ejectment. Eleventh Edition. H Sweet. V and R Stevens, Sons and Haynes. 1862. Volume 2. Pages 1055, 1099
1325
1326, 1381, 1384, 1391, 1484, 1565. *Sixteenth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records. 2 June 1855. HMSO. pp 46, 48
49
54, 64. *(1846) 41 Parliamentary Paper

*Halsbury's Statutes of England, Second Edition, 1950, vol 18, pp 423–425 and passi
Google Books
*William Bagley. The New Practice of the Courts of Law at Westminster. A Maxwell. London. 1841
p 459
*Reports of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Practice and Proceedings of the Superior Courts of Common Law. Passim

*George Barclay Mansel. The Practice Upon Writ of Trial, for Debts not Exceeding £20. S Sweet. London. 1833
p 18
Former courts and tribunals in England and Wales Legal history of England History of County Durham 1875 disestablishments in England Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1875