Chancery - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition chancery

Definition :

Chancery [fr. Cancelli, lattice-work, Lat.; chancellerie, Fr.]. the Court of Chancery, which administered equity (see that title) so far as distinct from law, was the highest court of judicature in this kingdom next to Parliament.

Its powers and jurisdiction were in 1875 transferred to (I.) The High Court of Justice, and (II.) The Court of Appeal [(English) Jud. Act, 1873, ss. 16-18].

(I) There is by the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, replaced by the English Judicature Act, 1925, s. 4, a Division of the High Court of Justice called the Chancery Division. To this Division are assigned (1) matters in which the court of Chancery had exclusive statutory jurisdiction (except County Court appeals), of these, the jurisdiction under the (English) Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853-1869, is practically the only portion nw remaining, the other jurisdictions having become exercisable under subsequent legislation. (Note: a. P. 1934, p. 2374), and (2) causes and matters for the administration of estates of deceased persons, dissolutions of partnerships, or taking of partnership or other accounts; redemption and foreclosure of mortgages, raising of portions or other charges on land; sale and distribution of proceeds of property subject to a lien or charge; execution of trusts, charitable or private; rectification, setting aside, or cancelling deeds or other written instruments; specific performance of contracts between vendors and purchasers of real estates, including contracts for leases; partition or sale of real estates; wardship of infants and care of their estates and many other matters assigned by Statute, e.g., (English) Companies (Companies Act, 1929), Law of Property (Settled Land and Trustee) Acts, 1925, (English) Land Registration Act, 1925, Life Assurance Companies Act, 1896, (English) and Patents and Designs Acts, 1907 and 1919.

Also all matters within the jurisdiction of the High Court under the (English) Bankruptcy Act, 1914, and certain matters relating to the appointment of new trustees and vesting orders of property in connection with persons of unsound mind, see s. 54, (English) T. Act, 1925, and (English) T.A. Rules (Jurisdiction in Lunacy), 1925.

(II) The powers and jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal in Chancery, formerly consisting of the Lord Chancellor and Lords Justices of Appeal in Chancery, are transferred to the Court of Appeal [(English) Jud. Act, 1873, s. 18, sub-s. 1], replaced by (English) Jud. Act, 1925, s. 26. See APPEAL, COURT OF.

As to the investment of and the mode of dealing with money paid into the Chancery Division of the High Court, see the (English) Chancery Funds Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 44), now repealed and replaced by the Jud. Act, 1925, and (English) Supreme Court Funds Rules, 1927.