Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1871

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MATRIMONIAL CAUSES AND MARRIAGE LAW (IRELAND) AMENDMENT ACT 1871

CHAPTER XLIX.

An Act to amend the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870. [13th July 1871.]

Short title.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 110.

1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as “The Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1871,” and “The Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870,” and this Act, may be cited together for all purposes as “The Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Acts, 1870 and 1871.”

Construction.

2. This Act and the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870, so far as the same is not inconsistent with this Act, shall be construed together as one Act.

Court may direct issues to try any fact.

3. Where the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters directs an issue, it shall be lawful for the said Court to direct such issue to be tried in any court of common law, and either before a judge of assize in any county, or at the sittings for the trial of causes in Dublin, and either by a special or common jury, in like manner as is now done by the Court of Probate.

[S. 4 rep. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 39. (S.L.R.) Ss. 5–8 rep. 56 & 57 Vict. c. 54. (S.L.R.)]

Practice of the court.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 110.

9. The practice of the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters shall, except where otherwise provided by the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870, or this Act, or by the rules or regulations made or to be from time to time made under the said Act or this Act, be, so far as the circumstances of the case will admit, according to the present practice of the Court of Probate.

[S. 10 rep. 56 & 57 Vict. c. 54. (S.L.R.)]

Power to appoint commissioners to administer oaths.

11. The judge of the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters may, under the seal of the said court, from time to time appoint persons to administer oaths, and to take declarations or affirmations, and perform such other duties with reference to matrimonial causes and matters as may be assigned to them from time to time by rules and regulations to be made by the judge of the said court, in pursuance of the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Acts, 1870 and 1871, and the persons so appointed shall be styled “Commissioners of Her Majesty's Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters.”

Registrars, &c. to have power to administer oaths.

20 & 21 Vict. c. 79.

22 & 23 Vict. c. 31.

12. The registrars and officers of the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters, and the commissioners for taking oaths in the High Court of Chancery, and all persons now or hereafter authorized to administer oaths under the Probates and Letters of Administration Act (Ireland), 1857, and the Court of Probate Act (Ireland), 1859, shall respectively have full power to administer oaths, and to take declarations or affirmations in proceedings of the said Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters.

Commissioners may be appointed in the Isle of Man, &c.

13. It shall be lawful for the judge of the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters to appoint, by commission under the seal of the said court, any persons practising as solicitors in the Isle of Man, in the Channel Islands, or any of them, and also such persons resident in England, Wales, and Scotland as he shall think fit, to administer oaths, and to take declarations or affirmations, and to exercise any other powers which can be exercised by commissioners of the said court, and such persons shall be entitled from time to time to charge and take such fees as any other persons performing the same duties in the said court may charge and take.

Power to make affirmations or declarations.

14. Any party required to be examined, or any person required or desiring to make an affidavit or deposition, under or for the purposes of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Acts, 1870 and 1871, shall be permitted to make his solemn affirmation or declaration, instead of being sworn, under the circumstances and in the manner under and in which a person called as a witness so desiring to make an affidavit or deposition in any of the superior courts would now be permitted to do so.

Penalty on forging or counterfeiting seals, &c. of officers.

15. If any person forge the signature of any commissioner of the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters, or of any registrar or officer of the said court, or of any commissioner of the High Court of Chancery, or of any person acting under the authority of this Act, or forge or counterfeit any seal of the said Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters, or knowingly use or concur in using any such forged or counterfeit signature or seal, or tender in evidence any document with a false or counterfeit signature of such commissioner, registrar, or other officer of the said court, or of any such commissioner of the High Court of Chancery, or such other person, or use a false or counterfeit seal, knowing the same signature or seal to be false or counterfeit, every such person shall be guilty of felony, and shall upon conviction be liable to penal servitude for the term of his life, or any term not less than seven years, or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three years, with or without hard labour.

[S. 16 rep. 56 & 57 Vict. c. 54. (S.L.R.) S. 17 rep. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 39. (S.L.R.)].

Persons forging seal or signature guilty of felony.

6 Geo. 4. c. 87.

18. If any person shall forge any such seal or signature as last aforesaid, or any seal or signature impressed, affixed, or subscribed under the provisions of the Consular Advances Act, 1825, or of the said[¹] Act of the eighteenth and nineteenth of Victoria, to any affidavit, declaration, or affirmation to be used in the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters, or shall tender in evidence any such document as aforesaid with a false or counterfeit seal or signature thereto, knowing the same to be false or counterfeit, he shall be guilty of felony, and shall upon conviction be liable to penal servitude for the term of his life       .      .      .      ; and whenever any such document has been admitted in evidence by virtue of this Act, the court or the person who has admitted the same may, at the request of any party against whom the same is so admitted in evidence, direct that the same shall be impounded, and be kept in the custody of some officer of the court or other proper person, for such period and subject to such conditions as to the said court or person shall seem meet; and every person charged with committing any felony under this Act may be dealt with, indicted, tried, and if convicted sentenced, and his offence may be laid and charged to have been committed in the county, district, or place in which he may be apprehended or be in custody; and every accessory before or after the fact to any such offence may be dealt with, indicted, tried, and if convicted sentenced, and his offence laid and charged to have been committed, in any county, district, or place in which the principal offender may be tried.

Perjury.

19. Any person who shall wilfully give false evidence, or who shall wilfully swear, affirm, or declare falsely in any affidavit or deposition before any commissioner of the Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters, or before any registrar or officer of the said court, or any commissioner of the High Court of Chancery, or any other person acting under the authority of this Act, or before any commissary, ecclesiastical judge, or surrogate who, at the time of the passing of this Act, is authorised to administer oaths in the Isle of Man, or in any of the Channel Islands, or before any person authorized to administer oaths under this Act, shall be liable to the penalties of wilful and corrupt perjury.

Power to Chief or Under Secretary to order all letters patent, records, &c. to be transmitted from all ecclesiastical courts.

20. The Chief or Under Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland may order every person who before the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one was judge, registrar, or other officer of any ecclesiastical court in Ireland, or any other person having the custody or possession of or control over any letters patent, records, deeds, processes, acts, proceedings, books, documents, or other instruments or papers relating to marriages or to any matters or causes matrimonial, to transmit the same to the principal registry of the said Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters, at such times and in such manner and under such regulations as the said Chief or Under Secretary may appoint; and if any such person shall wilfully disobey such order, he shall for the first offence forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, to be recoverable at the suit of Her Majesty's Attorney General, as a debt under this Act, in any of the superior courts at Dublin, and for the second and subsequent offences the judge of the said Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters may commit the person so offending to prison for any period not exceeding three calendar months, provided that the warrant of committal be countersigned by the Chief Secretary.

[S. 21 substitutes words in 33 & 34 Vict. c. 110. s. 37: see that section.]

A certificate to be produced in all cases of marriages by special license.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 110.

26 & 27 Vict. c. 90.

22. In all cases of marriages which may be legally solemnized under the authority of a special license granted in pursuance of the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870, the parties about to contract any such marriage shall produce to the clergyman or minister celebrating the marriage, or, in case the parties are members of the Society of Friends, to the registering office of the said Society of Friends for the district in which the same is intended to be solemnized, a certificate according to the form in the schedule hereunto annexed, or to the like effect, which certificate shall be procured by the parties contracting the marriage previous to its solemnization, from the registrar of the district within which such marriage is intended to be solemnized, who shall be bound to fill up the said form, and which certificate shall be signed by the parties contracting the marriage and by the witnesses present thereat, not being less than two, and also by the said clergyman, minister, or registering officer; and the parties contracting the marriage shall within three days thereafter either deliver or send by post such certificate to the Registrar General of Marriages; and the husband shall, in case of failure so to deliver or send such certificate, be liable in a penalty not exceeding ten pounds, to be recovered in manner provided by the Registration of Marriage (Ireland) Act, 1863, for the recovery of penalties.

Particulars of certificates to be entered in register books.

Corrections of erroneous entries.

23. Every registrar, on receipt of any such certificate, shall forthwith enter the particulars thereof in the register book: Provided always, that if any error shall be discovered to have been committed in the entry of marriage in any register, the person discovering the same shall forthwith give information thereof to the justice or justices at the petty sessions of the district within which such marriage shall have been solemnized, or, if within the Dublin Metropolitan Police District, to a divisional justice or justices within the said district; and it shall be lawful for the said justice or justices, and they are hereby authorized and required, thereupon, or upon otherwise coming to the knowledge of such erroneous entry, to summon before them the person who made and any person concerned in making such erroneous entry or having any knowledge regarding the same, and also any person interested in the effect of such erroneous entry, and to examine all such persons on oath; and if the said justice or justices shall be satisfied that any error has been committed in any such entry, such justice or justices shall, by authority in writing under his or their hands, direct the registrar to correct the erroneous entry; and it shall be lawful for the registrar, and he is hereby required, thereupon to correct the erroneous entry according to the truth of the case by entry in the margin, without any alteration of the original entry; and such marginal entry shall contain a reference to the deposition upon which the said justice or justices directed the correction to be made, and shall be dated on the day on which it is made, and signed by the parties applying for the correction, and by the registrar; and in every case the registrar shall make the like alteration in the certified copy of the register book; provided that in case such certified copy shall have been already made, he shall make and deliver in like manner a separate certified copy of the original erroneous entry and of the marginal correction made therein.

Marriages by special license under 33 & 34 Vict. c. 110 valid.

24. All marriages legally solemnized under the authority of special licenses granted in pursuance of the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870, shall be deemed to be and shall be valid and effectual to all intents and purposes.

Persons may be nominated to issue licences for marriage in the Roman Catholic Church.

25. Every bishop of the Roman Catholic Church may, by writing under his hand, nominate persons to issue licenses for marriage in cases where both or either of the parties intending to intermarry are or is a Roman Catholic: Provided that when only one of the parties is a Roman Catholic, notice in writing shall be given by one of the parties to the person empowered to issue such licenses seven days before the license shall issue; and the person receiving such notice shall forthwith send by post a copy thereof to the clergyman officiating at the places of worship where the parties intending marriage have been in the habit of attending.

Power to issue licenses for mixed marriage.

26. Any person who, under the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870, is or shall be empowered to issue licenses for marriage, may issue such licenses in cases where only one of the parties intending to intermarry is a Protestant Episcopalian, in the same manner and subject to the same rules as are therein prescribed in cases where both the parties are Protestant Episcopalians; and any license heretofore or hereafter issued under the said Act, or under the provisions of this present section, is hereby declared regular and valid when one of the parties shall, for seven days previous to the giving of notice of such intended marriage, have resided in the district of the person issuing such license.

Who may solemnize mixed marriages.

License in lieu of registrar's certificate.

27. Whenever a license for the marriage of a Roman Catholic with a person not a Roman Catholic shall have been issued, pursuant to the provisions of sections twenty-five or twenty-six of this Act, such marriage may lawfully be solemnized by a Roman Catholic clergyman between such persons; and whenever such license shall, pursuant to the provisions of either of said sections, have been issued for the marriage of a Protestant Episcopalian with a person not a Protestant Episcopalian, such marriage may lawfully be solemnized by a Protestant Episcopalian clergyman; and when any of such licenses shall have been issued it shall not be necessary to obtain any certificate from the registrar, and every such license shall have the same force and effect as under the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870, the certificate of registrar would have had.

Amendment of sect. 13 of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 81. as to marriages according to Jewish usage.

28. [Recital of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 81. s. 13.] Notwithstanding anything in the said section contained, it shall not be necessary in any case of marriage intended to be solemnized in Ireland according to the usages of Jews that the building stated in the notice or notices by the said section required to be given to the registrar or registrars as the building in which such marriage is intended to be solemnized, or that the building in which such marriage is solemnized shall be within the district within which one of the parties shall have dwelt for the time prescribed in the said section.

Persons nominated to issue licenses may in case of sickness, &c. appoint a deputy.

29. In case of sickness or unavoidable absence of any person duly nominated to issue licenses for marriages in Ireland, it shall be lawful for such person, with the approval in writing of the person or authority by whom he was appointed, or of the person or authority for the time being exercising the functions of such person or authority, to appoint a fit and proper person to act as his deputy for any period not exceeding two calendar months at one time, and every such deputy during the time for which he is so appointed shall have all the powers to issue licenses for marriage and shall perform all the duties and be subject to all the obligations and liabilities in relation to such licenses of the person by whom he is so appointed.

SCHEDULE.

Sect. 22 .

18 .—Marriages solemnized under the authority of a Special License granted by (        ), at (        ), in the Registrar's District of (        ), in the county of (        ).

Married at        , of (        ) according to the Rites and Ceremonies of (        ),

By me, [William Jackson].

This marriage was solemnized between us {Patrick Donovan, Mary O’Brien,} in the presence of us, {Dennis Donovan, Laurence O’Brien.

[¹ 18 & 19 Vict. c. 42. referred to in s. 16.]