CHAPTER 270.
GENERAL PROVISIONS.
AN ACT in relation to the simplifying and expediting of the procedure and trial of Civil and Criminal Causes in the Courts of this State.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware, in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That within sixty days of the adoption of this Act, the Governor shall appoint two members of the Bar of New Castle County, two members of the Bar of Kent County and two members of the Bar of Sussex County to act as a Commission to investigate and report as to the means of simplifying and expediting the procedure and trial of civil and criminal cases in this State. If any person so selected as aforesaid shall refuse to act or shall thereafter resign or die, the Governor shall as soon as possible select another member of the Bar of the same County to act in his place and stead.
Section 2. The persons selected as aforesaid shall be and are hereby created and constituted a Commission for the purposes mentioned in Section 1 of this Act. The members of said Commission shall serve without compensation.
Section 3. The said Commission shall, after having completed the investigation aforesaid, make report of their findings and recommendations to the Chancellor, the Chief Justice and the four Associate Judges of this State.
Section 4. In order that the recommendations of the said Commission shall be carried into effect as speedily as possible, the Chancellor shall, for the Court of Chancery, and a majority of the other State Judges, shall, for the Supreme Court, the Superior Court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and the Court of General Sessions, have and they are hereby vested with full power and authority to make and ordain from time to time rules, in term or in vacation, changing the forms and kinds of actions and proceedings in said Courts, altering the mode and form of pleading in said Courts and the mode of entering and transcribing pleadings, judgments, orders, decrees and other proceedings in said Courts, and prescribing how, in what cases and when, (whether in term or in vacation) judgments may be obtained for want of an affidavit of defense, and fixing the return day of all writs used in the commencement of suits, actions or other proceedings, and making regulations for the payment of costs, and otherwise, for carrying into effect the said rules. The rules aforesaid, when so made and ordained as aforesaid, shall supersede all statutory provisions inconsistent therewith.
Section 5. The Commission aforesaid shall also make report to the General Assembly at the next session, setting forth the results of the investigation aforesaid, and their recommendations, together with such proposed legislation in the premises, as they deem necessary or advisable.
Approved March 26, A. D. 1913