Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 1)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896934455

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-236504

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 1

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: LI, 568 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. The executive Government

Collection:: Economics Books

cusp. 1] THE POWERS OF THE GOVERNOR 107 If the plea is to be regarded as a plea of privilege only, and as claiming immunity to the Governor from liability to be sued in the courts of the Colony, their Lordships think that it cannot, in that aspect of it, be sustained. The dictum attributed to Lord Mansfield in Fabrigas v. Mostyn! that ‘ the Governor of a Colony is in the nature of a viceroy, and therefore locally during his government no civil or criminal action will lie against him ; the reason is, because upon process he would be subject to imprisonment,’ was dissented from and declared to be without legal founda- tion in the judgment of the Lords of the Judicial Committee delivered by Lord Brougham in the case of Hill v. Bigge.? In that appeal their Lordships were of opinion that the plea of the Lieutenant Governor of the Island of Trinidad to an action brought against him in the civil court of the island, claiming that whilst Lieutenant Governor he was not liable to be sued in that court, could not be sustained. The action was for a private debt contracted by the defendant in England before he became Governor, but the principle affirmed by the judgment is that the Governor of a Colony, under the commission usually issued by the Crown cannot claim, as a personal privilege, exemption from being sued in the courts of the Colony. The claim to such exemption is thus met :— If it be said that the Governor of a Colony is quasi sovereign, the answer is, that he does not even represent the Sovereign generally, having only the functions delegated to him by the term of his commission, and being only the officer to execute the specific powers with which that commission clothes him.’ The defendant has sought to strengthen his claim of privilege by averring in his plea that the acts complained of were done by him ‘as Governor’, and ‘as acts of State’. Their Lordships propose hereafter to consider the particular averments of this plea. It is enough here to say that it appears to them that if the Governor cannot claim exemp- tion from being sued in the courts of the Colony in which he holds that office, as a personal privilege, simply from his being Governor, and is obliged to go further, his plea must then show by proper and sufficient averments that the acts complained of were acts of State policy within the limits of his commission, and were done by him as the servant of the Crown, so as to be, as they are sometimes shortly termed, acts of State. A plea, however, disclosing these facts would raise more than a question of personal exemption 1 Cowp. 161. * 3 Moo. P. C. 465.

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