Western Australian Consolidated Acts

SUITORS' FUND ACT 1964 - SECT 14B

14B .         Costs of trial etc. where court refuses to approve settlement may be met from Fund

        (1)         In this section —

        person under a disability means —

            (a)         an infant;

            (b)         a person in respect of whom an administration order is in force under Part 6 of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 ; and

            (c)         a person who, by reason of mental illness, defect or infirmity, however occasioned, is declared by the court to be incapable of managing his affairs in respect of any proceedings to which the declaration relates;

        settlement includes a compromise of an action or of an appeal, acceptance of money paid into court and an acceptance of an offer to consent to judgment.

        (2)         Where in any action or appeal —

            (a)         there is a claim or appeal by or on behalf of a person under disability;

            (b)         the person under disability or his next friend has applied to the court for an order approving the proposed settlement;

            (c)         the court refuses to approve the proposed settlement;

            (d)         on trial of the action or in an appeal brought in relation thereto the amount awarded is not more than the amount offered in the proposed settlement; and

            (e)         the person under disability or his next friend is ordered to pay the whole or any part of the costs of the action or appeal on any ground,

                the court before which the action is tried, or the court by which the appeal is heard, as the case may be, may, upon application made to it in that behalf, grant to the person under disability or his next friend an indemnity certificate.

        (3)         An indemnity certificate granted under subsection (2) entitles the person under disability or his next friend to be paid from moneys standing to the credit of the Fund —

            (a)         the costs of the action or the appeal ordered to be paid by the person under disability or his next friend; and

            (b)         the costs of the action or appeal, as the case may be, as determined by the Board, incurred by or on behalf of the person under disability after the date on which the court refused to approve the settlement.

        (4)         Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (3), the total amount payable from moneys standing to the credit of the Fund in respect of any proceedings in respect of which a certificate is so granted shall not in any case exceed $5 000 or such other amount as may from time to time be prescribed.

        [Section 14B inserted by No. 37 of 1978 s. 2; amended by No. 24 of 1990 s. 123; No. 49 of 1996 s. 64.]