An Act Transferring Actions and Proceedings Now Pending in Courts of Justices of the Peace and Provost Courts in the City of Manila, to the New Courts Created by Act Numbered One Hundred and Eighty-Three Incorporating the City of Manila

August 5, 1901

ACT NO. 186

AN ACT TRANSFERRING ACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS NOW PENDING IN COURTS OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND PROVOST COURTS IN THE CITY OF MANILA, TO THE NEW COURTS CREATED BY ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THREE INCORPORATING THE CITY OF MANILA

SECTION 1. Section sixty-nine of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, relating to the organization of courts, is hereby repealed and the existing courts of justices of the peace in the city of Manila are hereby abolished. All civil actions and proceedings now pending therein, together with all records, books, and papers relating to such actions and proceedings, are hereby transferred to the courts of justices of the peace established under Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three incorporating the city of Manila, which shall have the same power and jurisdiction over them as if they had been primarily commenced, lodged, and filed therein.

SECTION 2. All criminal actions and proceedings now pending in the existing courts of justices of the peace in the city of Manila, together with all records, books, and proceedings relating to such actions and proceedings, are hereby transferred to the municipal courts established under the said Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, which shall have the same power and jurisdiction over them and over the defendants therein as if they had been primarily commenced, lodged, or filed therein. Such criminal actions and proceedings shall be tried in that judicial district of the city of Manila in which the offense is alleged to have been committed.

SECTION 3. All military orders, and all Acts conferring upon provost courts in the city of Manila jurisdiction over criminal offenses committed against the laws of the Philippine Islands, are hereby repealed. All criminal prosecutions now pending in the provost courts of the city of Manila are hereby transferred to the municipal courts established under Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, or to the Courts of First Instance for the District of Manila, each prosecution to be transferred to the proper tribunal in which it would have been brought under the provisions of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, providing for the organization of courts, and of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, incorporating the city of Manila, had the last-named Act been in force at the time said prosecutions were commenced; and the Courts of First Instance in the City of Manila, and municipal courts therein, are authorized to try and determine the prosecutions so transferred to them respectively from the provost courts, in the same manner, and with same legal effect as though such actions had originally been commenced in said Courts of First Instance or municipal courts: Provided, nevertheless, That nothing herein contained shall affect the jurisdiction of provost courts over purely military offenses.

SECTION 4. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this Act, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect at the same time as Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, incorporating the city of Manila.

ENACTED, August 5, 1901.