Lunacy Act, 1890

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Definitions.

341. In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context—

“Asylum” means an asylum for lunatics provided by a county or borough, or by a union of counties or boroughs:

“The Bank” means the Governor and Company of the Bank of England:

“Clerk,” in relation to a local authority, means, where the local authority is a county council, the clerk of the council, and where the local authority is a borough council, the town clerk of the borough:

“Commissioners” means the Commissioners in Lunacy:

“Contingent right,” as applied to lands, includes a contingent and executory interest, a possibility coupled with an interest, whether the object of the gift or limitation of such interest or possibility be or be not ascertained, also a right of entry, whether immediate or future, and whether vested or contingent:

3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 74.

“Convey” and “conveyance” include the performance of all formalities required to the validity of conveyances by married women and tenants in tail under the Fines and Recoveries Act, 1833, and also surrenders and other acts which a tenant of copyhold lands can perform preparatory to or in aid of a complete assurance of such copyhold lands:

“County,” for the purpose of the powers exerciseable by justices of a county, does not include a county of a city or county of a town (except the City of London), but includes any county, riding, division, part or liberty of a county having a separate court of quarter sessions:

51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

“County borough” has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act, 1888:

47 & 48 Vict. c. 64.

“Criminal lunatic” has the same meaning as in the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884:

“District asylum” means an asylum provided by two or more counties in union or by any county or counties in union with any borough or boroughs:

“Dividends” includes interest and other annual produce:

4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 76.

“Guardians” means guardians[¹] appointed under the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834, and the Acts amending the same, and includes guardians or other body of persons performing under any local Act the like functions as guardians under the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834:

“Hospital” means any hospital or part of a hospital or other house or institution (not being an asylum) wherein lunatics are received and supported wholly or partly by voluntary contributions, or by any charitable bequest or gift, or by applying the excess of payments of some patients for or towards the support, provision, or benefit of other patients:

“Inquisition” includes an order, certificate, or verdict operating as an inquisition:

“Institution for lunatics” means an asylum, hospital, or licensed house:

“Justice” means a justice of the peace:

“Land” includes an undivided share of land:

“Lease” includes underlease:

“Lunatic” means an idiot or person of unsound mind:

“Magistrate” means a stipendiary magistrate and any magistrate appointed to act at any of the police courts of the metropolis:

“Manager” in relation to an institution for lunatics means the superintendent of an asylum, the resident medical officer or superintendent of a hospital, and the resident licensee of a licensed house:

“Masters” means the Masters in Lunacy:

“Medical officer” means, in the case of an asylum, the medical superintendent, or if the superintendent is not a medical practitioner the resident medical officer of the asylum, in the case of a hospital the superintendent, and in the case of a licensed house the resident medical practitioner, or if none the medical practitioner who visits the house as the medical attendant thereof:

21 & 22 Vict. c. 90.

49 & 50 Vict. c. 48.

“Medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner duly registered under the Medical Act, 1858, and the Acts amending the same, and the Medical Act, 1886:

“Mortgage” includes every estate, interest, or property in real or personal estate, which is a security for money or money’s worth:

“Next of kin” includes heir at law, and the persons entitled under the statutes for the distribution of the estates of intestates:

“Pauper” means a person wholly or partly chargeable to a union, county, or borough:

“Paymaster-General” includes the Assistant Paymaster-General for Supreme Court business:

[¹ “Possessed” includes any vested estate less than a life estate at law or in equity in possession or in expectancy in any lands]:

“Prescribed” means prescribed by this Act or by any rules under this Act:

“Private patient” means a patient who is not a pauper:

“Property” includes real and personal property, whether in possession, reversion, remainder, contingency, or expectancy, and any estate or interest, and any undivided share therein:

“Public department” means the Treasury, the Admiralty and a Secretary of State, and any other public department of the Government:

“Quarter Sessions” includes general sessions:

“Quarter sessions borough” means a borough having a separate court of quarter sessions:

“Reception order” means an order or authority made or given before or after the commencement of this Act for the reception of a lunatic, whether a pauper or not, in an institution for lunatics or as a single patient, and includes an urgency order:

“Relative” means a lineal ancestor or lineal descendant, or a lineal descendant of an ancestor not more remote than great-grandfather or great-grandmother:

[¹ “Seised” includes any vested estate for life or of a greater description, and shall extend to estates at law and in equity in possession or futurity in any lands.]

17 & 18 Vict. c. 104.

“Stock” includes any fund, annuity, or security transferrable in books kept by any company or society, or by instrument of transfer alone, or by instrument of transfer accompanied by other formalities, and any share or interest therein, and also shares in ships registered under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854[²] :

“Transfer” includes assignment, payment, and other disposition, and the execution, and performance, of every assurance and act to complete a transfer:

“Trust” and “trustee” include implied and constructive trusts, and cases where the trustee has some beneficial interest, and also the duties incident to the office of personal representative of a deceased person, but not the duties incident to an estate conveyed by way of mortgage:

“Union” means any parish or union of parishes for which there is a separate board of guardians:

“Visiting committee” means a committee of visitors of an asylum appointed under this Act:

30 Vict. c. 6.

“Workhouse” includes an asylum provided for reception and relief of the insane under the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, and the managers of every such asylum shall exercise the powers and perform the duties by this Act conferred and imposed upon the guardians of the union to which a workhouse belongs.

342. [Repeal of enactments in Fifth Schedule.]

. . . . This repeal shall not affect any jurisdiction or practice established, confirmed, or transferred, or salary or compensation or superannuation secured, by or under any enactment repealed by this Act.

[¹ See now 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73, ss. 20, 24.]

[¹ Added by 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65, s. 28.]

[¹ Added by 54 & 55 Vict. 65, s. 28.]

[² This Act is rep. by 57 & 58 Vict. c. 60, s. 745, which substitutes a reference to that Act.]