d of four, which is higher than any hand of three:
whenever a pounce occurs, a new card is turned up from the pack.
COMMERCIAL COURT, in England, a court presided over by a single judge of
the king's bench division, for the trial, as expeditiously as may be, of
commercial cases. By the Rules of the Supreme Court, Order xviii. a
(made in November 1893), a plaintiff was allowed to dispense with
pleadings altogether, provided that the indorsement of his writ of
summons contained a statement sufficient to give notice of his claim, or
of the relief or remedy required in the action, and stating that the
plaintiff intended to proceed to trial without pleadings. The judge
might, on the application of the defendant, order a statement of claim
to be delivered, or the action to proceed to trial without pleadings,
and if necessary particulars of the claim or defence to be delivered.
Out of this order grew the commercial court. It is not a distinct court
or division or branch of the High Court, and is not regulated by any
special rules of court made by the rule committee. It originated in a
notice issued by the judges of the queen's bench division, in February
1895 (see W.N., 2nd of March 1895), the provisions contained in which
represent only "a practice agreed on by the judges, who have the right
to deal by convention among themselves with this mode of disposing of
the business in their courts" (per Lord Esher in _Barry_ v. _Peruvian
Corporation_, 1896, 1 Q. B. p. 209). A separate list of causes of a
commercial character is made and assigned to a particular judge, charged
with commercial business, to whom all applications before the trial are
made. The 8th paragraph is as follows:--
Such judge may at any time after appearance and without pleadings make
such order as he thinks fit for the speedy determination, in
accordance with existing rules, of the questions really in controversy
between the parties.
Practitioners before Sir George Jessel, at the rolls, in the years 1873
to 1880, will be reminded of his mode of ascertaining the point in
controversy and bringing it to a speedy determination. Obviously the
scheme is only applicable to cases in which there is some single issue
of law or fact, or the case depends on the construction of some contract
or other instrument or section of an act of parliament, and such issue
or question is either agreed upon by the parties or at once
ascertainable by the judge. The succ
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