VPRS 792 Decrees

From 1841 to 1852 all Victorian Supreme Court cases were handled by the New South Wales Supreme Court, Port Phillip District under the Imperial Act 5 Vict No 9. It provided that the resident judge of the Port Phillip District should have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with civil and criminal cases. The Supreme Court had the same jurisdiction as that of the Lord High Chancellor in Equity. With the creation of the Supreme Court of Victoria (Act 15 Vict No 10) in 1852 the Master in Equity became a recognised officer in the Court in Victoria. In 1883, by the Supreme Court (Judicature) Act, the English legislation providing for the concurrent jurisdiction of law and equity came to apply in Victoria where previously the court was notionally divided into a court of law and a court of equity. The 1883 Act was later repealed, and was re-enacted with considerable procedural amendments by the Supreme Court Act 1890.This series consists of the Decrees made by the Court and collated by the Master in Equity. Decrees made by the Court in the course of a case before it consisted of directions regarding the payment of costs, directions regarding the payment of damages and directions regarding the transfer of property from one party to another in a case. Decrees were enforceable by the Court and put into effect the judgment of the Court in a matter.From 1859 until 1862 the Decrees were transcribed in to the volumes. The Decree was engrossed on to the Roll in the Case File (see VPRS 259 Equity Case Files) and a copy of the Decree was also placed in the Equity Case File. The folio number of the Decree in VPRS 792 was written on the copy in the Equity Case File and the date of the Decree was noted in the Equity Suit Book VPRS 1697.From 1861 the practice of transcribing the Decree into the volumes ceased. Instead the original Decrees were bound together into volumes rather than being placed in the Equity Case File. The Decrees were folded originally and were later unfolded and bound, probably by the Masters Office, to assist reference. The cases folio number in the Equity Suit Book (VPRS 1697) is written on the Decree and if the Decree was engrossed on the Roll, that is also noted. The Equity Case File Number is usually not written on the Decree. The previous system of transcribing Decrees in to the Books did not provide these cross references.All Equity Court Decrees were noted in the Equity Suit Books, see VPRS 1697.A Note about Previous/ Subsequent SeriesAlthough this series covers the period 1859 1884 (including 1864), some Decrees from 1864 were bound into a volume with Orders and Reports also created in 1864, see VPRS 12799 Orders, Decrees and Reports. It is not known why this was done, possibly the Decrees in VPRS 12799 were overlooked when the majority of the Decrees were bound into the volumes of VPRS 792, and for expediency these Decrees were bound with Orders and Reports that also had been missed.VPRS 792/P was reserialised in 2001 as part of the ARAD Project. The former unit 25 has been reserialised as VPRS 12799/P1, units 26 - 32 as VPRS 12696/P1 units 1- 8, and the former unit 33 as VPRS 12697/P1 unit 1.