Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1A) Subject to the
express provisions of any other Act, in every civil cause or matter commenced
in the Supreme Court, law and equity shall be administered by the Court
according to the rules set out in subsections (1) to (7).
(1) If any plaintiff
or petitioner claims to be entitled to any equitable estate or right, or to
relief upon any equitable ground against any deed, instrument, or contract, or
against any right, title, or claim whatsoever asserted by any defendant or
respondent in such cause or matter, or to any relief founded upon a legal
right, which before the commencement of the Supreme Court Act 1880 6 could
only have been given by a court of equity, the Court, and every judge thereof,
shall give to such plaintiff or petitioner such and the same relief as ought
to have been given by the Court in its equitable jurisdiction in a suit or
proceeding for the same or the like purpose properly instituted before the
commencement of the said Act.
(2) If any defendant
claims to be entitled to any equitable estate or right or to relief upon any
equitable ground against any deed, instrument, or contract, or against any
right, title or claim asserted by any plaintiff or petitioner in such cause or
matter, or alleges any ground of equitable defence to any claim of the
plaintiff or petitioner in such cause or matter, the Court, and every judge
thereof, shall give to every equitable estate, right, or ground of relief so
claimed, and to every equitable defence so alleged, such and the same effect,
by way of defence against the claim of such plaintiff or petitioner, as the
Court in its equitable jurisdiction ought to have given if the same or the
like matters had been relied on by way of defence in any suit or proceeding
instituted by the Court for the same or the like purpose before the
commencement of the Supreme Court Act 1880 6 .
(3) The Court, and
every judge thereof, shall have power to grant to any defendant in respect of
any equitable estate or right, or other matter of equity, and also in respect
of any legal estate, right, or title claimed or asserted by him —
(a) all
such relief against any plaintiff or petitioner as such defendant shall have
properly claimed, by his pleading, and as the Court, or any judge thereof,
might have granted in any suit instituted for that purpose by the same
defendant against the same plaintiff or petitioner; and
(b) all
such relief relating to or connected with the original subject of the cause or
matter, and in like manner claimed against any other person, whether already a
party to the same cause or matter or not, who shall have been duly served with
notice in writing of such claim pursuant to any rule of court or any order of
the Court, as might properly have been granted against such person if he had
been made a defendant to a cause duly instituted by the same defendant for the
like purpose.
(3A) Every person
served with any such notice as mentioned in subsection (3)(b) shall
thenceforth be deemed a party to such cause or matter, with the same rights in
respect of his defence against such claim, as if he had been duly sued in the
ordinary way by such defendant.
(4) The Court, and
every judge thereof, shall recognize and take notice of all equitable estates,
titles, and rights, and all equitable duties and liabilities appearing
incidentally in the course of any cause or matter, in the same manner in which
the Court in its equitable jurisdiction would have recognized and taken notice
of the same in any suit or proceeding duly instituted therein before the
commencement of the Supreme Court Act 1880 6 .
(5) No cause or
proceeding at any time pending in the Supreme Court shall be restrained by
prohibition or injunction; but every matter of equity on which an injunction
against the prosecution of any such cause or proceeding might have been
obtained, if the Supreme Court Act 1880 6 had not been passed, either
unconditionally or on any terms or conditions, may be relied on by way of
defence thereto.
(5A) However —
(a)
nothing in this Act shall disable the Court, if it thinks fit, from directing
a stay of proceedings in any cause or matter pending before it; and
(b) any
person, whether a party or not to any such cause or matter, who would have
been entitled, if the Supreme Court Act 1880 6 had not been passed, to apply
to any court to restrain the prosecution thereof, or who may be entitled to
enforce, by attachment or otherwise, any judgment, decree, rule, or order,
contrary to which all or any part of the proceedings in such cause or matter
may have been taken, may apply to the Court, by motion in a summary way, for a
stay of proceedings in such cause or matter, either generally or so far as may
be necessary for the purposes of justice; and the Court shall thereupon make
such order as shall be just.
(6) Subject to the
foregoing provisions for giving effect to equitable rights and other matters
of equity, and to the other express provisions of this Act, the Court, and
every judge thereof, shall recognize and give effect to all legal claims and
demands, and all estates, titles, rights, duties, obligations, and liabilities
existing by the common law or by any custom, or created by any statute, in the
same manner as the same would have been recognized and given effect to if the
Supreme Court Act 1880 6 had not been passed in any branch of its
jurisdiction, or by the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes.
(7) The Court, in the
exercise of the jurisdiction vested in it by this Act, in every cause or
matter pending before it, shall have power to grant, and shall grant, either
absolutely or on such reasonable terms and conditions as shall seem just, all
such remedies whatsoever as any of the parties thereto may appear to be
entitled to in respect of any and every legal or equitable claim properly
brought forward by them in such cause or matter; so that, as far as possible,
all matters so in controversy between the parties may be completely and
finally determined, and all multiplicity of legal proceedings concerning any
of such matters avoided.
[Section 24 amended: No. 19 of 2010 s. 51.]
[Heading inserted: No. 19 of 2010 s. 44(2).]