LAND TRANSACTIONS (ENEMY OCCUPATION) ORDINANCE

LAND TRANSACTIONS (ENEMY OCCUPATION) ORDINANCE

CHAPTER 256.

LAND TRANSACTIONS (ENEMY OCCUPATION).

To give effect to voluntary transactions affecting land
during the Japanese occupation.

[16th July, 1948.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Land Trans-
actions (Enemy Occupation) Ordinance.

2. In this Ordinance-
'assignor' and 'assignee' mean and include respectively
the persons purporting to dispose of or acquire the
property to which an instrument relates and include the
executors, administrators or assigns of an assignor or
assignee, as the case may be, and in the case of wi
assignor or assignee who disposed of or acquired any
property as trustees of any trust, the persons frorn time
to time lawfully acting as trustees of such trust;
'green ink entries' means the entries made in green ink
in the Land Office registers recording particulars of
transactions registered in the Japanese registers and
identified in the Land Office registers by the initials of
the Land Officer;
'Japanese assignment' means an instrument registered or
recorded in the Japanese registers purporting to relate
to a disposition of any land, house or building other-
wise than by way of mortgage or reassignment;
'Japanese house registration office' means the office in
which during the Japanese occupation were kept
registers or records of houses and buildings and docu-
ments in relation thereto;
'Japanese occupation' means the period from the 25th day
of December, 1941, to the ist day of September, 1945;
'Japanese registers' means the registers kept by the
Japanese house registration office and now lodged in
the Land Office in which were recorded particulars of
houses and buildings and transactions in connexion
therewith ;
'Land Office registers' means the volumes kept in the
Land Office at Victoria, wherein are entered, under
headings descriptive of the properties to which the





same relate, particulars of transactions and matters
affecting leased Crown lands.

3. (1) The green ink entries shall be deemed to have
been lawfully made.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 4 Of the
Land Registration Ordinance, a green ink entry, including
any variation or addition made by virtue of this Ordinance.,
shall, save in so far as any such entry, variation or addition
is lawfully deleted, constitute for a period of three years
from the date of the commencement of this Ordinance actual
notice of the transaction particulars of which are recorded
by the entry.

4. After the expiration of the said period of three
years the Land Officer shall delete from the registers all
such green ink entries but such deletion shall be without
prejudice to any right either within such three years or
thereafter to register any instrument in respect of which a
green ink entry has been made under the Land Registration
Ordinance.

5. (1) A Japanese assignment shall be construed and
take effect as a valid and subsisting agreement by the
assignor to assign on demand without further consideration
and (save in so far as such agreement or other instrument
otherwise provides) at the cost of the assignee or other
person lawfully requiring the same the property to which
such assignment relates in the form which would have been
directed by the court prior to the Japanese occupation in a
successful action for the specific performance of such an
agreement.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the preced-
ing subsection unless the Japanese assignment otherwise
provides or the context thereof or the true intention of the
parties otherwise requires, a reference to a house or build-
ing in such an assignment shall be deemed to include the
land enjoyed with such house or building at the date of
the execution of such assignment, together with all rights,
members, easements or appurtenances belonging or
appertaining to such land, house or building.





6. (1) Where any property, or part thereof, has
during the Japanese occupation been the subject matter of
successive Japanese assigninents, then, the assignee under
the last of such assignments may at his own expense require
the assignor on the last and any prior assignment to confirm
unto the assignee under the last of such assignments, or
as he may direct, the property or part thereof, as the case
may be, the subject matter of the last of such assignments.

(2) Where any property was assigned by way of
mortgage before the Japanese occupation and the mortgage
debt has been validly discharged, then if the property has
been the subject matter of a Japanese assignment or of
successive Japanese assignments, the assignee tinder such
assignment or the last of such successive assignments, as
the case may be, my require the mortgagee at the expense
of such assignee to reassign the property to him or as he
may direct.

(3) Any requirement lawfully made under this section
may be enforced by action commenced by writ of summons
in the original jurisdiction of the court in like manner as
if the liability to comply therewith had been included in a
contract relating to the property in respect of which such
requirement had lawfully been made tinder this section.

7. (1) If proceedings have been commenced in the
original jurisdiction in relation to any dispute or difference
between any persons as to the construction or effect of any
instrument registered or recorded in the Japanese registers,
or as to the liability of any person to assign or reassign or
confirm the assignment of any property to which any such
instrument purports or is alleged to relate, or as to the
form or content of any assignment, reassignment or deed
of confirmation to be executed or made by any such person,
or as to any other matter or thing arising out of any such
instrument or out of the provisions of this Ordinance, the
court may, on the application of any party to such dispute
or difference-
(a)with the written consent of all the parties to such
dispute or difference; or
(b)if no defendant to such proceedings has entered
an appearance therein; or





(c)if the court is of the opinion that the action may
more conveniently or expeditiously be tried in its
summary jurisdiction,
at any stage of the proceedings order that the entry of such
action in the original jurisdiction register be transferred to
the register of civil actions in the summary jurisdiction,
and thereupon the Supreme Court in its summary jurisdic-
tion shall have and may exercise the like jurisdiction both
at law and in equity in relation to the said dispute or
difference as might have been exercised by the court in its
original jurisdiction.

(2) In the event of a person who seeks redress under
this section being unable to issue a writ because fie is unable
to ascertain any person who may properly be joined as a
defendant he may apply to the court by petition without
preliminary service and if it appears to the court by
evidence upon affidavit that all reasonable inquiries have
been made and that the case is one to which this subsection
applies then the case shall proceed on petition and-
(a)unless the court otherwise directs it shall not be
necessary to serve the proceedings upon any person
or to have recourse to any form of substituted
service ;
(b)rule 12 of order II of the Code of Civil Procedure
shall apply;
(c)the court shall give all necessary and consequential
directions.

(3) In dealing with any proceedings under this section
the court shall have power to order that the registrar should
execute in lieu of any defendant, including a defendant
who cannot be ascertained within the meaning of the
preceding subsection, any deed which such defendant could
be required to execute under this Ordinance.
(4) Every judgment of the court in an action relating
to any such dispute or difference shall be reduced into
writing and shall forthwith be registered in the Land Office
by the successful party in such action.

8. (1) The Land Officer may, and shall be deemed
always to have had power to---
(a)delete any green ink entry which he is satisfied
should not have been made;





(b)make any green ink entry which he is satisfied
should have been made; and
(c)vary or add to any such entry when he is satisfied
that such variation or addition is necessary,
and any such deletion, variation or addition shall be attested
and verified by the signature of the Land Officer.

(2) The Land Officer shall delete any green ink entry
recording or evidencing the purported discharge of a debt
which by reason of the Debtor 'and Creditor (Occupation
Period) Ordinance, is deemed to have been wholly or
partly undischarged or any green ink entry depending for
its validity on the valid discharge of such a debt.

(3) Any person aggrieved on the ground that a green
ink entry should not have been made or is incorrect or on the
ground that the appropriate green ink entry has not been
made or is no longer subsisting may apply for redress to
the court by summary petition verified upon oath and the
court may thereupon take such evidence as it thinks fit, and
may make any order in relation to the matter which the
justice of the case requires. A copy of every such petition
shall be delivered to the Land Officer as soon as may be
after the issue thereof.

9. Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained,
in any action for specific performance founded on this
Ordinance---
(a)it shall be a valid defence for a person who has
been required to assign or confirin in accordance
with the provisions hereof, to show that the
Japanese assignment in respect of which such
assignment or confirmation was required is void
or voidable at his instance or would have been
void or voidable at his instance but for the enact-
ment of this Ordinance;
(b)a defendant shall be entitled to rely upon any
defence not inconsistent with this Ordinance upon
which he would have been entitled to rely had this
Ordinance not been passed.

10. (1) The Chief justice may make general rules and
orders subject to the approval of the Legislative Council,
for regulating-





(a)the practice and procedure of the court in respect
of proceedings of any kind under this Ordinance;
(b) the forms to be used;
(c) court fees, the fees of counsel and the costs of
solicitors ;
(d) generally for the better carrying out of the
provisions of this Ordinance relating to legal
proceedings and relating to the carrying out of the
orders and directions of the Supreme Court.

(2) Until such rules and orders are made and in so far
as the sarne may make no provision the rules and orders,
practice and procedure, forms and fees for the time being
in force in the Supreme Court in its original or summary
jurisdiction as the case may be shall be deemed to be in
force with such modifications as the circumstances may
require.

11. Whenever, by reason of the regulations practice
or procedure applicable to the Japanese house registration
office, or by reason of the absence of parties, or for any
other reason which the court shall deem sufficient, a
conveyance, assignment or other disposition of any land
house or building, executed during the Japanese occupation
otherwise than by way of mortgage or reassignment, was
not registered at the Japanese house registration office and
such conveyance, assignment or other disposition was, by
reason of not being under seal, or owing to the parcels
being incorrectly described, or through any defect in form
or otherwise inoperative according to the law in force in
the Colony immediately prior to the Japanese occupation
to carry out the true intention of the parties, then the
provisions of sections 5, 6, 7, 9 and io shall apply to such
conveyance assignment or disposition in like manner as if
it had been a Japanese assignment within the meaning of
this Ordinance.
34 of 1948. 17 of 1950. Short title. Interpretation. Legalization of green ink entries and their effect as notice. (Cap. 128.) 17 of 1950, s. 2. Deletion of green ink entries after three years. 17 of 1950, s. 3. Construction of instrument registered in Japanese registers. Provision in case of successive transactions. Proceedings in relation to disputes. (Cap. 4, rules.) Deletion, etc., of green ink entries by Land Officer. [s. 8 cont.] (Cap. 250.) Saving. Rules. Provision for certain instruments not registered in the Japanese house registration office.

34 of 1948. 17 of 1950. Short title. Interpretation. Legalization of green ink entries and their effect as notice. (Cap. 128.) 17 of 1950, s. 2. Deletion of green ink entries after three years. 17 of 1950, s. 3. Construction of instrument registered in Japanese registers. Provision in case of successive transactions. Proceedings in relation to disputes. (Cap. 4, rules.) Deletion, etc., of green ink entries by Land Officer. [s. 8 cont.] (Cap. 250.) Saving. Rules. Provision for certain instruments not registered in the Japanese house registration office.

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