MOTOR VEHICLE (THIRD PARTY INSURANCE) ACT 1943 - SECT 16
MOTOR VEHICLE (THIRD PARTY INSURANCE) ACT 1943 - SECT 16
16 . Jurisdiction
(1) In this section
—
action or proceedings means action or proceedings
making a claim for damages, in respect of the death of or bodily injury to a
person directly caused by, or by the driving of, a motor vehicle, against the
owner or driver of the vehicle or against the Commission;
court means Supreme Court, District Court, or
Magistrates Court, as the case may be;
pending action or proceedings means action or
proceedings commenced in the Tribunal and pending or in progress therein
immediately before the proclaimed date, and includes action or proceedings in
respect of which the Tribunal had, at that time, power to review periodical
payments, or to order that periodical payments be redeemed by a lump sum;
proclaimed date means the date on which the Motor
Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act Amendment Act 1972 comes into operation;
and
the Tribunal means the Third Party Claims Tribunal
abolished by subsection (2).
(2) On the proclaimed
date the Third Party Claims Tribunal, established under this Act before that
date, is abolished.
(3) On and after the
proclaimed date a court may, subject to the extent of its jurisdiction and to
subsection (5), hear and determine any action or proceedings.
(4) On the hearing and
determination of any action or proceedings a court shall, without in any way
limiting its usual powers in relation thereto, have the following further
powers —
(a) to
award by way of general damages either a lump sum or periodical payments or a
lump sum and periodical payments, such periodical payments to be for such
period and upon such terms as the court determines; and
(b) at
any time either of its own motion or on the application of any party to the
action or proceedings —
(i)
to review any periodical payment and either continue,
vary, reduce, increase, suspend, or determine it, or on the review to order
payment to the claimant of a further lump sum; or
(ii)
to order that any such periodical payments be redeemed by
payment of a lump sum.
(5) Any pending action
or proceedings shall, notwithstanding the amount of damages claimed, be
continued in the District Court in accordance with such practice and procedure
of the Tribunal, or the District Court, or a mixture of both, as the District
Court, generally or for the particular case, directs.
(6) In relation to any
pending action or proceedings, the District Court may, with such modifications
as are necessary or desirable, exercise all or any of the powers referred to
in subsection (4).
(7) After the
proclaimed date, the books and records of the Tribunal shall be kept by the
Registrar of the District Court and that Registrar may certify for all
purposes any such book or record, or any copy thereof or extract therefrom, as
if he were the Registrar of the Tribunal.
[Section 16 inserted: No. 42 of 1972 s. 6;
amended: No. 51 of 1986 s. 46(2); No. 107 of 1987 s. 14; No. 59 of 2004 s.
141.]