Declaration

Declaration, a formal statement or affirmation.

1. In all actions it was the term used for the next step by plaintiff after service of the writ of summons. "A Statement of Claim" is now substituted by the Judicature Acts.

2. A Declaration of use or trust is a statement or admission that property is to be held to the use of or in trust for a certain party. If the property be land or chattels real, this must be in writing. A Declaration of trust is the usual mode of creating a trust, where the trust property is already vested in a trustee.

3. A Declaration was substituted for an oath in certain cases by the Statutory Declaration Act, 1835. A statutory declaration may be made before a Justice of the Peace or Commissioners or other officers authorised to administer oaths. Any person wilfully making a false declaration is guilty of a misdemeanor.

4. Declaration of title. The Act for obtaining this was passed in the year 1862, and after reciting that it is expedient to enable persons having interest in land to obtain a judicial declaration of their title to the same so as to enable them to make an indefeasible title to persons claiming under them as purchasers for a valuable consideration, it is enacted that every person claiming to be entitled to or to have a power of disposing of, for his own benefit, land (not of copyhold or customary tenure) for an estate of fee simple in possession absolutely or subject to incumbrances, estates, etc., or entitled to apply for the registration of an indefeasible title under the "Transfer of Land Act," may petition the Court of Chancery, now the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice, for a Declaration of Title (Judicature Act, 1873).

5. A Declaration of inability to pay debts. Such a Declaration when signed and regularly filed constitutes an act of bankruptcy, upon which the debtor may be adjudicated a bankrupt. Under the old law it was termed a Declaration of insolvency.

6. Declaration is the term used in Scotland for a statement made by a prisoner before the magistrate immediately on his being brought before him. The magistrate has the power to postpone this for a period of not more than 48 hours after the arrest to give prisoner time to take legal advice.

7. A dying Declaration of persons in extremis, both in England, Scotland, and the United States, verified by accredited witnesses, is, under certain circumstances and under certain restrictions, admitted as evidence. This is, however, an exception to the ordinary rule as to secondary or hearsay evidence.