[ Act No. 166, July 16, 1901 ]

AN ACT CREATING A SPECIAL COURT FOR THE TRIAL OF CERTAIN ACTIONS, APPELLATE AND ORIGINAL, PENDING IN COURTS OF THE ISLAND OF NEGROS, ON AND BEFORE THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF JUNE, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND ONE.

By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine Commission, that:SECTION 1. A special and temporary court is hereby created for the Island of Negros, with one judge to preside therein, who shall lie appointed by the Civil Governor, with the consent of the Commission, and may be removed by the Civil Governor, with, a like consent. The judge shall receive a salary at the rate of three thousand five hundred dollars per year, in money of the United States.SEC. 2. The special court hereby created shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine:

1. All actions and proceedings which were pending in the Courts of First Instance in the Island of Negros on the sixteenth day of June, nineteen hundred and one, and which shall not have been heard by the new Courts of First Instance organized within the Island of Negros under Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, when this Act shall go into effect;
2. All appeals which, on the sixteenth day of June, nineteen hundred and one, were pending in the Court of Appeals for the Island of Negros organized under section seventeen of General Order Number Thirty, issued by the Military Government of the Philippine Islands on June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine;
3. All appeals which on the sixteenth day of June, nineteen hundred and one, were pending in the Court of Appeals for fines imposed by administrative action in the Island of Negros, organized by virtue of acts of the advisory council of said Island, and approved by the military governor thereof, on the eighteenth and nineteenth days of September, nineteen hundred.

All actions, proceedings, and appeals in this section described, together with all the records, books, and papers relating thereto, are transferred to the special court hereby established, which shall have the same power and jurisdiction over them as if they had been primarily lodged, deposited, filed, or commenced therein, or, in cases of appeal, appealed thereto.SEC. 3. The court hereby created shall be a court of record and have a seal, and shall be governed as to its hours of sessions, clerk, clerk's bond, his deputy and assistants, and the employment of stenographer, typewriter, translator or interpreter, officer of the court' the duties of fiscal, and allowance for traveling expenses, by the provisions of chapter four of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, providing for the organization of courts, and the amendments thereof. The clerk shall receive a salary at the rate of eight hundred dollars per year, in money of the United States, payable monthly.SEC. 4. The judge of the court hereby created shall hold terms of court at Bacolod, at which place all actions, proceedings, and appeals originating in Occidental Negros shall be heard, and at Dumaguete, at which place all actions, proceedings, and appeals originating in Oriental Negros shall be heard. The judge shall fix the times of holding the terms, and give due notice thereof to the public, but shall so fix the dales for the terms that the special court will be in session at Bacolod or at Dumaguete at the times respectively fixed by law for holding the regular terms of the Court of First Instance in the Provinces of Occidental and Oriental Negros, respectively.SEC. 5. The proceedings in the court hereby created shall be in accordance with the Civil and Criminal Codes of Procedure for Courts of First Instance in force in the Philippine Islands at the times when the several actions pending therein shall come on for trial; but in any appeals pending in said court, additional evidence may be received, if the court finds that the reception of such evidence is necessary in the interests of justice. All actions, civil and criminal, determined in said court may pass to the Supreme Court for revision, in the same manner and with the same effect as though the actions had been heard in a Court of First Instance organized under Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six.SEC. 6. On the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two, or upon the earlier completion of the trial and determination of all the proceedings and appeals over which jurisdiction is given to the court hereby created, the court shall cease and ho abolished without further legislation. In any action or proceedings at any time pending in the Supreme Court by appeal from the special court hereby created, the Supreme Court may if it reverses the judgment and orders a new trial, remand the case for a new trial to the regular Court of First Instance for Occidental or Oriental Negros, as the case, may be.SEC. 7. 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.SEC. 8. This Act shall take effect on its passage.Enacted, July 16, 1901.

Source: Supreme Court E-Library