Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) The Governor, by
commission either general or special, may assign to a master, a judge of The
District Court of Western Australia, any legal practitioner of at least
7 years’ standing, or to a magistrate, the duty of trying and
determining within any place or district specially fixed for that purpose by
such commission, any causes or matters, or any questions or issues of fact or
of law or partly of fact and partly of law in any cause or matter, depending
in the Supreme Court, or the exercise of any civil or criminal jurisdiction
capable of being exercised by a judge.
(2) Any commission so
granted shall be of the same validity as if it were enacted in the body of
this Act, and any person to whom it is given is thereby authorised to complete
the hearing and determination of any proceedings that may be duly pending
before him at the time when the commission would normally have determined.
(3) Any commissioner
appointed in pursuance of this section shall, when engaged in the exercise of
any jurisdiction so assigned to him, perform such and the like duties, and
have such and the like powers, as by this Act are imposed or conferred upon a
judge in the exercise of the ordinary jurisdiction of the Court.
(4) Subject to any
restrictions or conditions imposed by rules of court, any party to any cause
or matter involving the trial of a question or issue of fact, or partly of
fact and partly of law, may, with the leave of a judge, require the question
or issue to be tried or determined by a commissioner as aforesaid, and such
questions or issues shall be tried and determined accordingly.
(5) A cause or matter
not involving any question or issue of fact may be tried and determined in
like manner with the consent of all the parties thereto.
(6) The civil and
criminal jurisdiction capable of being exercised by a judge which under this
section the Governor may by commission either general or special assign to the
persons mentioned in subsection (1), may include each and every
jurisdiction, civil or criminal and original or appellate, which by any
custom, law, or prerogative, or any statute heretofore enacted, or hereafter
to be enacted, or otherwise howsoever, a judge of the Supreme Court, can now
or hereafter shall be empowered to exercise; and every general or special
commission by the Governor granted and issued under this section, which by its
terms purports to assign any such jurisdiction as abovementioned, shall in
that respect be good, valid, and effective.
[Section 49 amended by No. 39 of 1971
s. 8; No. 67 of 1979 s. 9; No. 47 of 1983 s. 7 and
13; No. 37 of 1989 s. 8; No. 65 of 2003 s. 69(6);
No. 59 of 2004 s. 128; No. 24 of 2005 s. 34.]