Forsythe v Ross

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1919
• Date: 01 January 1919
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)

C. A.,

R. (Maginnis)

and

Waterford Justices

Rules - Decision of Justices - Jurisdiction - Right of appeal - Friendly Societies Act, 1896 (59 60 Vict., c. 25), s. 68 (1) - Collecting Societies and Industrial Assurance Companies Act, 1896 (59 60 Vict., c. 26), s. 7.

The rules of a friendly society provided that all disputes between the society and its members "shall be determined by a Court of summary jurisdiction." Section 68 (1) of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict., c. 25), enacts that disputes "shall be decided in manner directed by the rules of the society or branch, and the decision so given shall be binding and conclusive on all parties without appeal, and shall not be removable into any Court of law or restrainable by injunction." Section 7 of the Collecting Societies and Industrial Assurance Companies Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict., c. 26), provides that in all disputes a member may, "notwithstanding any provisions of the rules of the society or company to the contrary, apply to the County Court or to the Court of summary jurisdiction, . . . and the Court may settle that dispute according to the provisions of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896."A dispute having been decided by justices in favour of a member, the society appealed from the decision of the Court of Quarter Sessions. The chairman and justices at Quarter Sessions dismissed the appeal on the ground that under the rules of the society, and s. 68 (1) of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, thay had no jurisdiction to hear it. The society applied for a writ of certiorari to quash the decision of Quarter Sessions:—Held, by the Court of Appeal (Sir James H. Campbell, C., dissenting), affirming the King's...