Wills may be made Testator must be of age Execution of wills No further publication Subsequent of witness theless, to be abolished or altered by competent legislative authority. 60-61 Vic., c. 28, s. 8. WILLS. 26. Every person may devise, bequeath or dispose of, by will executed in manner hereinafter mentioned, all real and personal property to which he is entitled either at law or in equity at the time of his death and which if not so devised, bequeathed or disposed of would devolve upon his heir-at-law or upon his executor or administrator. 27. No will made by any person under the age of twentyone years shall be valid. 28. No will shall be valid unless it is in writing and executed in manner hereinafter mentioned that is to say:-it shall be 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. 29. Every will executed in manner hereinbefore required shall be valid without any other publication thereof. 30. If any person who attests the execution of a will is at incompetency the time of the execution thereof or at any time afterwards incompetent to be admitted as a witness to prove the execution thereof, such will shall not on that account be invalid. Executor may be witness Devise to witness to be void, but prove execution 31. No person shall on account of his being an executor of a will be incompetent to be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of such will or as a witness to prove the validity or invalidity thereof. 32. If any person attests the execution of any will to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise or legacy witness may affecting any real or personal property (other than a charge for the payment of a debt) is thereby given, such devise or legacy shall so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will, or the wife or husband of such person or any person claiming under such person, wife or husband, be null and void, and such person so attesting shall be admitted to prove the execution of such will or the validity or invalidity. of such will notwithstanding such devise or legacy. wills and codicils Revocation of 33. No will or codicil or any part thereof shall be revoked otherwise than by marriage or by another will or codicil executed in manner hereinbefore required or by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same and executed in the manner in which a will is hereinbefore required to be executed or by the burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the same by the testator or by some person in his presence and by his direction with the intention of revoking the same. shall be 34. Every will shall be construed with reference to the real How a will and personal property affected by it, to speak and take effect construed as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator unless a contrary intention appears by the will. simple shall 35. If any real property is devised to any person without When fee any words of limitation such devise shall be construed to pass pass the fee simple, or other the whole estate or interest which the testator had power to dispose of by will, in such real property, unless a contrary intention appears by the will. MARRIED WOMEN. earnings to 36. All the wages and personal earnings of a married Her own woman and any acquisitions therefrom and all proceeds or belong to her profits from any occupation or trade which she carries on separately from her husband or derived from any literary, artistic or scientific skill, and all investments of such wages, earnings, moneys or property shall be free from the debts or dispositions of the husband and shall be held and enjoyed by such married woman and disposed of without her husband's consent as fully as if she were a feme sole, and no order for protection shall be No order necessary in respect of any such earnings or acquisitions; and necessary the possession, whether actual or constructive, of the husband, of any personal property of any married woman shall not render the same liable for his debts. 37. A married woman may make deposits of money in her Deposits own name in any savings or other bank and withdraw the in bank same by her own cheque; and any receipt or acquittance of such depositor shall be a sufficient discharge to any such bank. investment 38. Nothing herein before contained in reference to moneys Fraudulent deposited or investments by any married woman shall, as not valid against any creditor of the husband, give validity to any deposit or investment of moneys of the husband made in fraud of such creditors; and any money so deposited or invested may be followed as if this Act had not been passed. before and 39. A husband shall not, by reason of any marriage, be Debts of wife liable for the debts of his wife contracted before marriage, but after marriage the wife shall be liable to be sued therefor, and any property belonging to her for her separate use shall be liable to satisfy such debts as if she had continued unmarried; and a husband. shall not be liable for any debts of his wife in respect of any employment or business in which she is engaged on her own behalf, or in respect of any of her own contracts. against 40. A married woman may maintain an action in her own Suits by and name for the recovery of any wages, earnings, money and pro- married" perty, declared by this Act or which is hereafter declared to be woman her separate property, and shall have in her own name, the same remedies, both civil and criminal, against all persons whomsoever for the protection and security of such wages, earnings, money and property, and of any chattels or other her separate property, for her own use, as if such wages, earnings, money, chattels and property belonged to her as an unmarried woman; and any married woman may be sued or proceeded against separately from her husband in respect of any of her separate debts, engagements, contracts or torts, as if she were unmarried. Supreme Court continued Constitution of court Who may judge ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 41. The Supreme Court of record of original and appellate jurisdiction now existing under the name of "The Supreme Court of the North-West Territories" is hereby continued under the name aforesaid. 42. The Supreme Court shall consist of five puisné judges, who shall be appointed by the Governor in Council by letters patent under the Great Seal. 43. Any person may be appointed a judge of the court whol be appointed is or has been a judge of a Superior Court of any Province of Canada, a stipendiary magistrate of the Territories, or a barrister or advocate of at least ten years' standing at the bar of any such Province, or of the Territories. No other office 44. No judge of the court shall hold any other office of of emolument emolument under the Government of Canada, or of any Province thereof, or of the Territories. to be held Residence Tenure of office Oath to be taken Form of oath How 45. Each judge of the court shall reside at such place in the Territories as the Governor in Council, in the commission to such judge, or by Order in Council, directs. 46. The judges of the court shall hold office during good behaviour, but shall be removable by the Governor General, on address of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada. 47. Every judge shall, previously to entering upon the duties of his office as such judge, take an oath in the form following: "I. do solemnly and sincerely promise and "swear that I will duly and faithfully and to the best of my "skill and knowledge, execute the powers and trusts reposed "in me as one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the "North-West Territories. So help me God." (2) Such oaths shall be administered by the Lieutenant administered Governor or by a judge of the court. Jurisdiction within the Territories civil and criminal 48. The court shall, within the Territories, and for the administration of the laws for the time being in force within the Territories, possess all such powers and authorities as by the law of England are incident to a superior court of civil and criminal jurisdiction; and shall have, use and exercise all the rights, incidents and privileges of a court of record and all other rights, incidents and privileges as fully to all intents and purposes as the same were on the fifteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, used, exercised and enjoyed by any of Her Majesty's superior courts of common law, or by the Court of Chancery, or by the Court of Probate in England,--and shall hold pleas in all and all manner of actions, causes and suits as well criminal as civil, real, personal and mixed,—and shall proceed in such actions, causes and suits by such process and course as are provided by law, and as tend with justice and despatch to determine the same,—and shall hear and determine all issues of law, and shall also hear and (with or without a jury as provided by law) determine all issues of fact joined in any such action, cause or suit, and give judgment thereon and award execution thereof in as full and as ample a manner as might at the said date be done in Her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench, Cominon Bench, or in inatters which regard the Queen's revenue (including the condemnation of contraband or smuggled goods) by the Court of Exchequer, or by the Court of Chancery or the Court of Probate in England. Supreme 49. The court shall sit in banc at such times and places as Sittings of the Lieutenant Governor in Council appoints; the senior judge Court present shall preside, and three judges of the court shall constitute a quorum. 61 Vic., c. 5, s. 3. 50. The court sitting in banc shall hear and determine all Jurisdiction applications for new trials, all questions or issues of law, all in banc questions or points in civil or criminal cases reserved for the opinion of the court, all appeals or motions in the nature of Appeals appeals, all petitions and all other motions, matters or things whatsoever which are lawfully brought before it: Provided that the judge by or before whom the judgment, order or decision then in question was rendered or made, shall not sit as one of the judges composing the court unless his presence is necessary to constitute a quorum. 57-58 Vic., c. 17, 8. 4. districts 51. The Governor in Council may at any time by procla- Judicial mation divide the Territories into judicial districts, and give to each such district an appropriate name, and in like manner, from time to time, alter the limits and extent of such districts. jurisdiction 52. Every judge of the court shall have jurisdiction through- Territorial out the Territories, but shall usually exercise the same within of judges the judicial district to which he is assigned by the Governor in Council, and in all causes, matters and proceedings, other than such as are usually cognizable by a court sitting in banc, and not by a single judge of the said court, shall have and exercise all the powers, authorities and jurisdiction of the court. certiorari (2) Subject to any statute prohibiting or restricting proceed- Writs of ings by way of certiorari, a single judge shall, in addition to his other powers, have all the powers of the Court as to proceedings by way of certiorari over the proceedings, orders, Powers of single judge Judges to replace the former stipendiary magistrates Sittings, where held Sheriffs and clerks Deputy sheriff's and clerks Vacancies Duties, etc.. clerks convictions, and adjudications had, taken and made by justices of the peace, and in addition thereto shall have the power of revising, amending, modifying or otherwise dealing with the same; and writs of certiorari may, upon the order of a judge, be issued by the clerk of the court mentioned in such order returnable as therein directed. 54-55 Vic., c. 22, s. 7. 53. Whenever, under any Act in force in the Territories, any power or authority is to be exercised, or anything is to be done by a judge of a court, such power or authority shall, in the Territories, be exercised or such thing shall be done by a judge of the Supreme Court, unless any other provision is made in that behalf by such Act. 54. The judges of the Supreme Court shall have all the powers, authority and jurisdiction vested in the stipendiary magistrates of the Territories on the second day of June, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six; and wherever in any Act of the Parliament of Canada relating to the Territories, the words "stipendiary magistrate" or "stipendiary magistrates" are used, the same shall mean a judge or the judges of the Supreme Court, as the case may be. 55. Sittings of the Supreme Court, which shall be presided over by a judge of the court, shall be held in each judicial district at such times and places as the Lieutenant Governor of the Territories appoints. 56. For each judicial district the Governor in Council may appoint a sheriff and the Lieutenant Governor in Council may appoint a clerk of the court, and may respectively name the place at which such sheriff and clerk, respectively, shall reside and keep an office; and the clerk of the district within which the seat of government of the Territories is situate, shall be registrar of the court sitting in banc. 60-61 Vic., c. 28, s. 10. (2) And each sheriff and clerk shall appoint a deputy or deputies at such places within the district and with such powers as are, from time to time, determined by an Ordinance of the Legislative Assembly. (3) In case of a vacancy happening in the office of sheriff or clerk by reason of death, incapacity or otherwise, his deputy may perform his duties until a successor is appointed; and where there is no such deputy, the judge usually exercising jurisdiction within the judicial district may appoint a person to till the vacancy in the meantime. (4) The Legislative Assembly may, subject to the provisions. of sheriffs and of this Act, define by Ordinance the powers, duties and obligations of sheriffs and clerks, and their respective deputies. 54-55 Vic., c. 22, s. 8. Seal of the court 57. Each clerk of the court shall use such a seal for sealing processes issued out of the court in the district for which he is appointed as the Lieutenant Governor approves. |