VPRS 15176 Supreme Court Civil Action / Cause Book

This series was created to record all civil actions initiated in the Supreme Court of Victoria on circuit at Warrnambool. A civil action was initiated when a plaintiff filed a summons at the Prothonotory's Office. The summons set out a complaint against another party, the defendant. It sets out the nature of the plaintiff's complaint and also a provision that if the complaint is met by a specified date, the action would cease.The defendant then has three alternatives. He can either(a) meet the complaint on the summons and thus end the proceedings,(b) do nothing, in which case a default judgement (and costs) would be awarded by the court in the plaintiff's favour; or(c) contest the action through the lodging of a document known as an "appearance". Only if this latter alternative is followed does an action become a civil trial.Details regarding each action is spread over 2 folios (4 pages) in these books. The first two pages identifies the parties involved and detail the nature of the action. Information contained on these pages includes: the number of the action, the names of the plaintiff, defendant (s) and their solicitors, the date of filing of the summons, the entering of the appearance, a description of the complaint, damages sought and, if applicable, details on the issuing of writs of copias ad satisfaciendum (ca.sa) or fieri facias (fi.fa.). A fi.fa directs the sheriff of the Supreme Court to seize assets belonging to the defendant with a view to auctioning them to satisfy the complaint on the summons whilst, a ca.sa. also sees the defendant arrested. An attempt by the plaintiff to have one of those writs issued with the summons is usually an indication that the defendant is a declared insolvent.The second folio (the last two pages of the 4) was used to document details of contested actions or default cases. Blank entries on these pages usually indicate that the defendant met the complaint on the summons. Details on these pages includes: date of the close of the pleadings (the pre trial phase in which the facts of trial are described by the parties), date of delivery of the trial papers, whether an action is for trial or assessment of damages (default cases become an assessment for damages, such cases being indicated by the word "default" in this column), whether trial by judge alone or by jury, trial date, verdict, costs, details of final judgement, details of issue of fi.fa or ca.sa with the judgement and remarks. The remarks column usually notes details of any subsequent court action, the issue of any nisi rules and filing of sundry information. By the 1980s information about each case was recorded on a single page.