Although by the statute 43 Geo. III, c. 54, s. 21, the judgment of the Presbytery is declared to be final without appeal or review by the court, civil or ecclesiastical, yet if the proceedings upon which judgment was pronounced were contrary to law or if that court exceeded the powers committed to it by statute, they may be reversed and set aside by the court.
Lord Lyndhurst LC answered the argument that the Court’s power was ousted by the Statute: ‘But I apprehend, that (particularly from the circumstance of the appeal being taken away) a jurisdiction is given in this case to the Court of Session, not to review the judgment on the merits, but to take care that the Court of Presbytery shall keep within the line of its duty, and conform to the provisions of the Act of Parliament. There is in the Court of Session in Scotland, that superintending authority over inferior jurisdictions, which is requisite in all countries, for the purpose of confining those inferior jurisdictions within the bounds of their duty; and the only question here is, whether this case is of such a nature and description as to justify the calling into action that authority of the superior court? Cases were cited at the Bar, and mentioned in the printed papers now on your Lordships’ table, in which the Court of Session has exercised a superintending authority over inferior jurisdictions, when they have been guilty of excess of their jurisdiction, or have acted inconsistently with the authority with which they were invested.’
Lord Lyndhurst LC
(1829) 3 Wils and S 441
Scotland
Cited by:
Cited – Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission HL 17-Dec-1968
All Public Law Challenges are For a Nullity
The plaintiffs had owned mining property in Egypt. Their interests were damaged and or sequestrated and they sought compensation from the Respondent Commission. The plaintiffs brought an action for the declaration rejecting their claims was a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 20 September 2021; Ref: scu.653283
