The Rules of the Supreme Court (Amendment No. 3) 1990

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Rules of the Supreme Court 1965 so as—

(a)to make provision for the issue of writs when the Admiralty and Commercial registry is closed and for this and any other purposes to define the term “FAX” (rules 2 to 6);

(b)to extend the circumstances in which service of a writ out of the jurisdiction is permissible to cover claims made under the Financial Services Act 1986 (rule 7);

(c)to make provision for the disposal of cases on points of law or construction (rules 8 to 10);

(d)to require a defendant to serve his defence on every other party to the action who may be affected by it (rule 11);

(e)to clarify the procedure on appeal to the High Court where a case is stated by a tribunal or other body of its own motion (rule 12);

(f)to enable the Court of Appeal to revise amounts of damages awarded by juries in all cases where the Court considers them excessive or inadequate (rule 13);

(g)to provide for the service of documents by facsimile transmission and to amend the rules governing the service of documents through a document exchange (rule 14);

(h)to abolish the requirement for specially endorsed affidavits in mortgage possession actions (rule 15);

(i)to establish procedural requirements in relation to certain proceedings under the Companies Act 1989 (rule 16);

(j)to provide that applications under section 245B(1) of the Companies Act 1985 be made by originating motion (rule 17);

(k)to admit hearsay evidence in summary proceedings for the possession of land (rules 18 and 19);

(l)to include those instruments referred to in the Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990 in the list of instruments whose interpretation may be referred to the European Court (rule 20);

(m)to correct an error in the Rules of the Supreme Court (Amendment No. 2) 1990 (rule 21).