About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1980 Ann. Surv. S. African L. 454 (1980)
Civil Procedure

handle is hein.journals/assafl1980 and id is 502 raw text is: CIVIL PROCEDURE H J ERASMUS* A LEGISLATION Section 25(c) of the Expropriation Act 63 of 1975 has had a chequered history. In its original form the subsection read as follows: '25. The State President may make regulations as to ... (c) the tariff of court and other fees and orders as to costs in connection with proceedings before a compensation court.' The subsection was amended by the insertion of the words 'exclud- ing advocates' fees' by the Expropriation Amendment Act 3 of 1978. At the same time a new subsection (7) was inserted into s 16 of the principal Act which provides that the rules which apply in the provincial divisions of the Supreme Court 'relating to the amounts which may be charged as advocates' fees in connection with civil matters and the taxation of such amounts' shall mutatis mutandis apply to the proceedings in compensation courts. The subsection has now been further amended by s 1 of the Expropria- tion Amendment Act 8 of 1980 which also excludes attorneys' fees from the list of subjects on which regulations may be made by the State President under the Act. The Supreme Court Amendment Act 46 of 1980 arises from the first interim report (RP 31/1980) of the Commission of Enquiry into the Structure and Functioning of the Courts. The commission considered the backlog of cases awaiting hearing in the Appellate Division to be so serious as to justify an urgent interim report. Only one of the recommendations contained in the report was adopted by the government, viz the reduction of the quorum of the Appellate Division in civil matters from five to three judges. Section 12 of the Supreme Court Act 59 of 1959 is amended by providing that in civil matters the quorum of the Appellate Divi- sion shall consist of three judges. Subsection (c) of section 12 is amended by giving the ChiefJustice or, in his absence, the senior available judge of the Appellate Division, the power to direct that an appeal, in view of its importance, be heard before a court consisting of a larger number of judges. The reduction of the * MA (OFS) LLB (SA) D Litt et Phil (Leiden), Professor of Law in the University of Stellenbosch.