and determine summarily all civil causes to the amount of fifty dollars, except where title to lands may be involved, and except actions for libel, replevin, malicious prosecutions, and actions against any justice of the peace or other public officer for acts done in the execution of his duty, if such justice or officer objects thereto. The supreme court may hear and determine all matters involving any amount. An appeal lies from the judgment of the supreme court to the king in council where the amount involved is of the value of two thousand dollars.

Deeds. All deeds, decrees, judgments, conveyances affecting land shall be registered in the office of the registrar of deeds appointed by the governor in council. Deeds within the island may be proved upon the oath of a subscribing witness or any party executing the same, or upon the personal acknowledgment of a party from whom an interest passes, to be made before the registrar, deputy registrar, a judge or commissioner of affidavits of the supreme court, or a justice. Deeds may be proven out of the island of Newfoundland (1) in his Majesty's dominions by the oath of a subscribing witness or the acknowledgment of one of the parties, such oath or acknowledgment to be made before any commissioner of the supreme court of Newfoundland or before a judge of a court of record under the seal of such court, before the mayor or chief magistrate of any city or town under the seal of such city or town, or before a notary public under his official seal. (2) Outside of his Majesty's dominions in the same manner as within his Majesty's dominions with the addition of any one of his Majesty's consuls or vice-consul to the list of those before whom the oath or acknowledgment may be made.

Depositions.

See Commissions.

Divorce. There is no court in Newfoundland having power to grant divorce or to dissolve or annul marriage.

Evidence. The law of England prevails, except as modified by local statutes. Interest. - Legal rate, six per cent. A contract may be made in writing for any rate. Limitation of Actions. All actions for rent upon indenture or demise, upon any bond or recognizance, within twenty years. Actions upon any award where the submission is not by specialty, or for an escape, or for money levied; actions upon any case other than slander; actions for account; actions for trespass, debt, detinue, trover, and replevin; actions or suits on the admiralty side of the supreme court for seamen's wages, within six years; actions for trespass, or assault, menace, battery, wounding, imprisonment, within four years; actions for penalties, damage, or sums of money by the parties aggrieved, two years; actions for words, within two years after the words spoken.

Married Women's Property Act. Under this act married women may carry on separate business and hold separate estate. A female becomes of age at twenty-one.

Mechanic's Lien.- Every mechanic, machinist, builder, miner, contractor, or other person doing work on or furnishing material to be used in constructing any building, etc., at the request of the owner has a lien for the same upon the building, etc., and the land occupied thereby and usually enjoyed therewith to the extent of the owner's interest. The lien must be registered in the registry office during the progress of the work, or within thirty days after completion, and ceases to exist unless proceedings are taken to enforce it within ninety days from completion.

Notes and Bills of Exchange. The law as to promissory notes and bills of exchange may be said to be the same as that which prevails in England; no stamps are required.

Practice. On July 1st, 1904, the Newfoundland "Judicature Act, 1904," with the rules of the supreme court therein embodied, came into operation. Under this act the practice of the supreme court of Newfoundland was made to approach as nearly to the English practice as local conditions will permit.

Proof of Claims. Full particulars of the claim, with the christian name, surname, and residence of all the proposed plaintiffs and defendants, should be furnished to a solicitor; when the plaintiff resides out of the jurisdiction of the court, the defendant is entitled to security for costs in such an amount as the court or a judge may direct.

Wills. Wills must be in writing, and either in the handwriting of the testator and signed by him, or, if not so written and signed, be signed by him in the presence of at least two witnesses, who shall in the presence of the testator sign the same as witnesses, and in case such will shall be made by a marksman, the same shall have first been read over to or by the testator in the presence of the said witnesses. Executors are competent witnesses. A testator is under No will is valid if made by a person under the age of seventeen years. no statutory restrictions as to the parties to whom he bequeaths his property.

LAWS OF NOVA SCOTIA

RELATIVE TO THE

COLLECTION OF DEBTS,

TAKING OF DEPOSITIONS, ETC.

PREPARED EXPRESSLY FOR HUBBELL'S LEGAL DIRECTORY, DECEMBER 1, 1906, BY DRYSDALE AND MINNES, OF THE HALIFAX BAR.

Acknowledgments. See Deeds.

Arrest.. Where plaintiff, by affidavit, proves to the satisfaction of a judge or a commissioner that plaintiff has a good cause of action to the amount of twenty dollars or upwards, and swears that the deponent has probable cause for believing and does believe that the defendant, unless he is arrested, is about to leave the Province, the judge, without inquiring into the ground of belief, will make an order directing that such defendant be arrested and held to bail. When the amount is less than eighty dollars, an order for arrest may be obtained from a magistrate upon an affidavit of the plaintiff setting forth the indebtedness, the deponent's belief that unless defendant is arrested the debt will be lost, and that defendant is about to leave the county, setting forth particularly the grounds for such belief.

Assignments. Assignments which, made by an insolvent person, give a preference to one creditor over another, or are made to any person other than the official assignee, are void. Attachment. In suits against absent or absconding debtors, the writ of summons shall be in the usual form, and may describe the defendant as absent or absconding out of the Province. The plaintiff may sue out a writ of attachment to take defendant's property, or issue a summons to any agent having money or credits due defendant, on making an affidavit showing a cause of action for twenty dollars or upwards, stating amount of debt or damage sustained, and that defendant is absconding or absent out of the Province. The sum so sworn should be indorsed on the writ of attachment. The sheriff shall levy for amount indorsed on writ, with one hundred and twenty dollars for probable costs, in actions to recover eighty dollars or upwards; twenty-eight dollars in actions for less. Goods exhibited to sheriff as defendant's goods are not bound by the attachment until levy is made. Perishable goods may be sold under an order of the court, unless defendant's agent gives security for their value within three days after appraisement; the affidavit may be sworn out of the Province if the court has jurisdiction over the subject-matter of the claim.

Affidavits. — Affidavits may be sworn abroad, before any judge of a court of record, British consul, notary public, or a commissioner authorized to administer oaths out of the Province, duly appointed by the government of the Province.

Bill of Sale. Every bill of sale of personal chattels, or a true copy thereof, and every schedule annexed or referred to in such bill of sale, must be filed with the registrar of deeds of the county or district in which the maker resides, at the time of the execution thereof, or if he be not a resident of Nova Scotia, then in the registration district in which the goods are situate, accompanied by an affidavit by the grantor of the execution of the bill of sale and the bona fides thereof; otherwise such bill of sale will as against purchasers and judgment creditors only take effect and have priority from the time of such filing. Bills of sale given as security for advances, indorsements, or liability incurred, or to be incurred by the grantee for the grantor must contain a recital setting forth the terms, nature, and effect of the transaction, and be accompanied by an affidavit of the grantor of the truth thereof. A bill of sale remains in force for three years from the filing thereof, and may be renewed by filing a renewal statement, showing amount due, payments made, etc., within thirty days next preceding the expiration of the bill of sale."

Chattel Mortgages. -See Bills of Sale.

Claims against the Estates of Deceased Persons. - Executors or administrators of the estate of a deceased person shall, by advertisement in the Royal Gazette newspaper, call upon all persons having claims against the estate of the deceased to file the same within one year from the date of the advertisement duly attested to by the party, or in his absence from the Province by his agent, before the registrar of probate for the county, a commissioner of the supreme court, or a justice of the peace. The affidavit shall be in the following form: I, A. B. of

in the County of

make oath and say, that the foregoing paper writing contains a true and correct account of my demand against the estate of C. D., late Province of Nova Scotia, deceased, and that all the credits

of

in the County of

to which the deceased was honestly and justly entitled, so far as I believe have been credited on said account; and that the balance of is justly and truly owing to me. Sworn before me at this day of A. D. 19 (Signed)

in the county of A. B. Courts, Jurisdiction. — Magistrates, debt up to eighty dollars; county courts, contracts from twenty to eight hundred dollars; torts, from twenty to four hundred dollars; supreme court, from twenty dollars upwards.

The county court has no cognizance of any action: 1. When title of land is brought in question. 2. In which the validity of any devise, bequest, or limitation is disputed, except in certain cases. 3. Criminal conversation or seduction. 4. Breach of promise of marriage. Depositions and Commissions. - Directions for executing commissions and taking depositions. Commissioners appointed to take the depositions of witnesses must first take the oath of office, according to the form indorsed on the writ of commission. Each of the commissioners may administer such oath to the other. When only one is appointed, or in the absence of any other commissioner, a commissioner may himself take the oath.

When the examination, which is upon interrogatories and cross-interrogatories and viva voce on the subject-matter arising out of the answers thereto, is reduced to writing by a clerk sworn by the commissioner to take down questions and answers, it is to be annexed with the affidavit, exhibits, and other papers to the writ of commission, and the commissioners are to sign and seal the "Form of Return" indorsed on the commission. Full instructions as to the execution of the commission are always contained in the writ.

Descent of Real and Personal Estate. - Real Estate. When a person dies intestate, any real estate to which he may be entitled at the time of his death shall descend as follows: I. In equal shares to children and issue of deceased children according to the right of representation. If no child living, to his other lineal descendants, who shall share equally if in same degree, otherwise according to the right of representation. 2. If no issue, one half to father, one half to widow in lieu of dower; if no widow, the whole to father. 3. If no issue nor father, one half to widow, other half in equal shares to mother, brothers, and sisters, and the children of deceased brother or sister by right of representation; if no widow, whole to mother, brother, and sister, and children of any deceased brother or sister by right of representation. 4. If none of foregoing, in equal shares to his next of kin in equal degree, excepting where two or more collateral kindred in equal degree, but claiming through different ancestors, those claiming through nearest ancestor shall be preferred, but in no case shall representatives be admitted among collaterals after brother's and sister's children. 5. If person deceased unmarried and under age, estate inherited from either parent goes to children of same parent and issue equally, if of same degree, otherwise according to right of representation; if no children of same parent, to all the issue of the other children of the same parent equally, if in same degree, otherwise according to right of representation. Degrees of kindred computed by civil law, and kindred of half blood inherit equally with those of whole blood in same degree.

Personal Property descends in the same way, except that after the payment of debts, funeral expenses, etc., if the intestate leave no lawful issue, one half of such residue shall go to his widow. If he leave issue, one third shall go to his widow, and if the intestate leave no kindred, the whole of such residue shall go to his widow for her own use. The widow is allowed all her paraphernalia, wearing apparel, etc., and sustenance for family for ninety days after death of husband.

Where a married woman dies intestate, leaving issue, her husband in addition to his estate as tenant by the curtesy shall take one third of her personal property and the residue shall be divided among her issue in like manner as if she had left no husband her surviving. And where she dies intestate without issue, one half of her personal estate shall go to her husband and the other half to her father, or if she have no father, then to her mother, brothers, and sisters in equal shares, and the issue of any deceased brother or sister by right of representation, and if there be no issue, father, mother, brother, or sister, the whole shall go to her husband.

Deeds. All deeds, judgments, attachments, leases for any time exceeding three years, and all vesting orders, affecting lands, shall be registered in the office of the registrar of deeds appointed by the governor in council for the county or district in which the lands lie. Deeds may be proved within or without the Province by the acknowledgment under oath by the parties executing any such instrument of the execution thereof or by the oath of a subscribing witness that the parties thereto executed the same in his presence, such oath to be administered within the Province by any registrar, a judge of the supreme or county court, a notary public, a barrister of the supreme court, a justice of the peace, or a commissioner of the supreme court, or without the Province by a commissioner appointed for taking affidavits without the Province for use in the courts of the Province, a judge of any court of record, the mayor or recorder of any city or incorporated town, a notary public or any minister, consul, vice-consul, or consular agent of his Majesty. The person taking such acknowledgments or administering such oath shall sign a certificate, indorsed on or attached to the instrument, of such acknowledgment having been made or oath administered, and such certificate shall be registered together with the instrument. Every instrument shall, as against any person claiming for valuable consideration and without notice under any subsequent instrument affecting the title to the same land, be ineffective unless such instrument is registered before the registering of such subsequent instrument. When any instrument is signed under a power of attorney, such power of attorney must be regis

tered. A release of mortgage may identify the land thereby released by reference to the registry of the mortgage.

Aliens and foreign corporations may hold title to lands in Nova Scotia.

Registered judgments and writs of attachment may be discharged by an entry made by the registrar on the margin of the registry thereof on the filing with him of a release of such judgment or attachment proved as above, or of a certificate under the seal of the court in which the judgment was obtained or out of which the attachment issued that the judgment has been satisfied or discharged, or that the action in which the attachment was issued has been discontinued or otherwise terminated in favor of the defendant.

Deeds of married women are as valid and effectual as if made by an unmarried woman if the husband of such married woman joins in the deed, or by a separate instrument expresses his concurrence therein; and the married woman acknowledges that the deed is her free act and deed and was executed freely and voluntarily without fear, threat, or compulsion of, from, or by her said husband. Such acknowledgment may be made before, and certified upon the instrument by any of the following persons: if within the Province before a judge of the supreme or county court, a justice of the peace, notary public, or barrister of the supreme court, and if without the Province before any of the persons mentioned above as qualified to prove deeds without the Province. A married woman whose husband is confined in a penitentiary or other prison for criminal offense or whose husband has ceased to live with her without sufficient legal cause, or whose husband is a minor, or insane, or idiotic, or otherwise legally incapacitated from executing a deed, or whose husband's interests in her real estate may have been sold under execution or otherwise disposed of, may obtain a judge's order enabling her to execute a power of attorney, deed, or other conveyance as if she were unmarried. A certified copy of such order must be registered with such deed or other conveyance.

Dower. A wife is entitled to dower out of all lands (with a few exceptions) of which her husband was seized at and after their marriage, in which she did not bar dower during his lifetime; but a husband can only be tenant by the curtesy of lands of which his wife died seized. There is no dower in any separate tract of unimproved lands.

Executions. -Writ of execution (fieri facias) may issue upon a judgment or order for the payment of any moneys or transfer of real or personal property, and, if unexecuted, shall remain in force for one year only from its issue, but may be renewed at any time before date of expiration for one year from date of renewal, and so on from time to time. A writ issued against personal property binds the same from the time of the delivery of the writ to the sheriff to be executed, except in the case of a bona fide purchaser for value without notice, in which case the writ binds the property only from the time of the actual seizure thereof under such writ before the sale to such purchaser. A levy may be made under an execution at any time within one year from its issue. After levy and due advertising the property shall be sold. Execution may issue at any time within six years from the signing of the judgment and afterwards by leave of the court. Real estate of debtor cannot be sold under a judgment until it has been registered in the registry of deeds for the county or district in which said lands lie for one year. The sheriff having made such levy, he shall give thirty days' notice of sale in a newspaper and by posters, when he shall sell the lands at public auction. By chapter 14 of the Acts of 1903 priority among execution creditors is abolished, except as therein provided. It is by that act provided that if a debtor permits an execution issued against him which is indorsed to levy for one hundred dollars or upwards to remain unsatisfied in the sheriff's hands till within two days of the time fixed by the sheriff for the sale, or for twenty days after the seizure, other creditors may take the proceedings specified in the act in respect of their debts, whether the same are overdue or not. The proceeds of the sale are then to be ratably divided by the sheriff among the creditors who have established claims as provided in the act. Provision is made for the contestation of claims by the execution debtor, or by a creditor interested in contesting the same.

Exemptions. The necessary wearing apparel and bedding and bedsteads of the debtor and his family, and the tools and instruments of his trade or calling to the value of thirty dollars, one stove, and his last cow, cooking utensils, six each of knives, forks, plates, cups, saucers, spoons, chairs, one shovel, one table, teapot, jug, spinning-wheel, weaving loom, ten religious volumes, food and fuel for thirty days, two sheep, one hog and food for same and cow for thirty days shall be exempt from execution.

Imprisonment for Debt. On the twelfth day of February, 1894, an act of the provincial legislature respecting the collection of debts came into operation. Under the provisions of this act no person shall be arrested or imprisoned upon any judgment of the supreme, county, or magistrate's courts, except, upon an examination of the debtor being held before a commissioner, it is made to appear to such commissioner that the debt was fraudulently contracted, or without reasonable expectation of its being paid, that the debtor made any fraudulent disposition, or in cases of iort that such tort was willful and malicious; then in such cases the debtor may be committed to gaol for a period not exceeding twelve months if the debt is not sooner paid. A judgment creditor is entitled to an order for such examination upon an affidavit by himself, his agent or solicitor, setting forth the judgment and the date of recovery thereof, and the name and residence of the debtor, and the amount due thereupon, and stating that he has endeavored but has been unable to procure satisfaction of such judgment by execution. The commissioner may direct an absolute

assignment of all real and personal property from the debtor to the creditor, in trust for the payment of the debt or payment by installments if it is made to appear to him that the debtor is in a position to so pay the debt.

Interest. - Legal rate, five per cent. A contract may be made for any rate. Every judgment debt shall bear interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum until satisfied. Judgments. See Executions.

Limitation of Actions. On all contracts not under seal, six years; judgments and contracts under seal, twenty years. No arrears of dower, rent, or interest can be recovered after six years.

Married Women's Property Act. Under this act a married woman is capable of holding, acquiring, and disposing of, by will or otherwise, real or personal property as her separate property, in the same manner as if she were a femme sole. If the married woman by her will leaves her husband more than he would be entitled to if she died intestate there should be an acknowledgment similar to that to be made by her in the case of deeds. A married woman has power to enter into contracts and render herself liable in respect of and to the extent of her separate property; she may also sue and be sued.

Under this act, a married woman, by registered consent of her husband, may carry on business in her own name.

Mortgages. (See Deeds.) — A mortgage is foreclosed by an action in the supreme court, and is discharged by a release in which reference may be made to the registry of the mortgage, and same must be executed and recorded as an ordinary deed, and a marginal note made on the registered mortgage that the same has been redeemed. There is no statutory form of mortgage.

Proof of Claim. — An attorney should be furnished with the christian and surnames and residences of all proposed plaintiffs and defendants, and with duplicate itemized particulars of the claim.

Revivor.-Part payment or acknowledgment in writing.

Wills-Must be in writing, signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator or by some other person in his presence and by his direction, and such signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time; and such witnesses shall attest and shall subscribe the will in the presence of the testator; but no form of attestation shall be necessary. Executors are competent witnesses. Wills of minors are invalid. There is no restriction upon the amount which may be willed to charity or to others than the testator's family. Children may be disinherited.