A

BILL

[AS AMENDED BY STANDING COMMITTEE D]

TO

Amend the law with respect to the effect of A.D. 1927. surcharges by district auditors, appeals from decisions of district auditors, and the recovery of sums certified to be due by district auditors.

B

E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, 5 as follows:-

more than

1.-(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, every Disqualifi person who, at any audit, has been surcharged with an cation of amount exceeding five hundred pounds by a district persons auditor shall for a period of five years commencing at surcharged 10 the expiration of the period allowed for making an five hundred appeal or application with respect to the surcharge pounds. under the provisions of this Act or, if such an appeal or application is made, commencing on the date on which such an appeal or application is finally disposed 15 of or abandoned or fails by reason of the non-prosecution thereof, be disqualified for being elected or appointed or being a member of any local authority, and if he is a member of a local authority his office shall thereupon become vacant :

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Provided that this section shall not apply to a surcharge in respect of any expenditure or loss incurred before the thirty-first day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-seven.

A.D. 1927.

Appeals against decisions

of auditors.

(2) If any person acts as a member of any local authority when disqualified under this section he shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

2. (1) Any person who is aggrieved by a decision 5 of a district auditor on any matter with respect to which he made representations at the audit, and any person aggrieved by a disallowance or surcharge of a district auditor may, where the disallowance or surcharge or other decision relates to an amount exceeding five 10 hundred pounds, appeal to the High Court, and may in any other case appeal either to the High Court or to the Minister of Health (hereinafter referred to as the "Minister") and the Court or Minister shall have power to confirm, vary or quash the decision of the auditor, 15 and to remit the case to the auditor with such directions as the Court or Minister thinks fit for giving effect to the decision on appeal, and if the decision of the auditor is quashed, or is varied so as to reduce the amount of the surcharge to five hundred pounds or less, the 20 appellant shall not be subject to the disqualification imposed by this Act.

Where an appeal is made to the Minister under this subsection, he may at any stage of the proceedings, and shall, if so directed by the High Court, state in the form 25 of a special case for the opinion of the Court any question of law arising in the course of the appeal but save as aforesaid the decision of the Minister shall not be subject to appeal to any Court.

(2) In the case of a surcharge the person surcharged 30 may, whether or not he appeals under the last preceding subsection, apply to the tribunal (whether the High Court or the Minister) to which he appeals or, if he does not appeal, to the tribunal (whether the High Court or the Minister) to which he might have appealed, 35 for a declaration that in relation to the subject matter of the surcharge he acted reasonably or in the belief that his action was authorised by law, and the Court or Minister, if satisfied that there is proper ground for doing so, may make a declaration to that effect, and 40 where such a declaration is made the person surcharged, if by reason of the surcharge he is subject to the disqualification imposed by this Act, shall not be subject to that disqualification, and the Court or Minister

may, if satisfied that the person surcharged ought fairly A.D. 1927. to be excused, relieve him either wholly or partly from personal liability in respect of the surcharge; the decision of the Court or Minister under this subsection shall be 5 final and shall not be subject to appeal.

(3) Provision may be made by rules of court for regulating appeals and applications to the High Court under this section, and those rules shall provide for limiting the time within which such appeals and appli10 cations may be made, and for securing that where an application is made public notice of the hearing shall be given, and for enabling any ratepayer or owner of property in the area of the authority to whose accounts the surcharge relates, to appear at the hearing and 15 object.

(4) Where under this section an appeal or application is made to the Minister of Health the appellant or applicant shall be entitled, if he so desires, to a personal hearing by a person appointed for the purpose by the 20 Minister.

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(5) The provisions as to the payment of costs applicable to appeals under any enactment repealed by this Act shall apply to appeals and applications to the Court under this section.

(6) Where any proceedings in the High Court under section thirty-five of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1844, or under that section as applied by any other enactment, for the removal into the High Court of any disallowance or surcharge were instituted before the 30 fourteenth day of February, nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, and the surcharge in respect of which the proceedings were instituted has not been enforced at the passing of this Act, no proceedings for the enforcement thereof shall be taken.

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auditor.

3.-(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any Recovery of enactment relating to audit by district auditors, any sums certisum which is certified by a district auditor to be due fied by the shall be recoverable either summarily or otherwise as a civil debt, and in any proceedings for the recovery of 40 such a sum any certificate purporting to be signed by a district auditor shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be a certificate signed by a district auditor, and a certificate signed by a district auditor shall be