EXCHEQUER, COURT OF, now the exchequer division of the high court of justice in England, is the court wherein all matters relating to the royal revenues are adjudicated upon. It is said (Madox, Hist. of Ex., i. 177) that as early as the reign of William the conqueror a court of exchequer was in existence. This was probably nothing more than a branch of the Aula l?eg la, or•great council of the nation; but on the subdivision of that court in the reign of Edward I., the court of exchequer acquired a separate and independent position. The special duty then assigned to the court was to order the revenues of the crown, and to recover the king's debts and duties. The court was then denominated the scac,carium, a word derived, it is said, from scaccus or scaccum, a chess-. board; and it was so called because a checkered cloth was anciently wont to be laid upon the table of the court (Madox, Mat. of Ex.), a practice which, until the late act, prevailed in the court of exchequer in Scotland. The court formerly consisted of two divisions, an equity, and a common law or plea side. Lord Coke iv. 118) appears to doubt whether the equitable jurisdiction of the court can be traced back further than the statute 33 Henry VIII. c. 39. This equitable jurisdiction of the exchequer was abolished by 5 Viet. c. 5, and transferred to the court of chancery. On the first institu tion of the court, the business was chiefly confined to matters connected with the royal revenue, but a privilege was conceded to all the king's debtors and farmers, and all accountants of the exchequer, to sue and implead all manner of persons. This privilege was exercised by means of a writ of quo minus (now abolished by 2 Will. IV. c. 39), wherein it was set forth that the plaintiff being a debtor of the king, was, by reason of the wrong done to him by the defendant, deprived of the means of discharging his debt to the crown (quo minus sufficiens existit). The benefit of this writ was by degrees extended to all the lieges, on the fiction that they were crown debtors. By this means the court of exchequer acquired a concurrent jurisdiction with the other courts of common law. The judges of the exchequer consisted originally of the lord treasurer, the chancellor of the exchequer, and three puisne judges; these last were called barons of the exchequer. The title of baron is said by Mr. Selden (Tit. of Hon., 2, 5, 16) to have been given to the judges in the exchequer because they were anciently made of such as were barons of the kingdom. The chancellor of the exchequer sat only on the equity side of the court. The last occasion on which he was called upon to exercise his judicial functions was in the case of Naish v. the East India company, when the judges were equally divided in opinion. This case occurred in Michaelmas term, 1735, when sir Robert Walpole was chancellor of the exchequer. The court now consists of six judges —viz., the chief baron, and four barons of exchequer. From this division of the high court, the appeal is to the court of appeal.
The court of exchequer chamber was formerly a court of all the judges in England assembled for decision of matters of law (Coke, Inst., iv. 110, 119). Lord Campbell
states that the lord chancellor was in the habit of adjourning cases of extraordinary importance into the exchequer, that he might have the opinion of the twelve judges (Lives of the Chancellors, i. 10). But the ordinary jurisdiction of the court of exchequer chamber was as a court of error, in which capacity it revised the judgments of the three courts of common law. This court was established by 31 Edw. I. c. 12, for the purpose of reviewing the decisions of the common-law side of the court. of exchequer, and was composed of the judges of the other two courts—viz., the queen's bench and the common pleas. By 27 Eliz. c. 8, it was enacted that the judges of the common pleas and exchequer should form a second court of exchequer chamber, for review of certain cases in the queen's bench. But this intermediate court of appeal was abolished by the judicature act of 1873, as inconveniently composed, and somewhat unnecessary. An appeal now lies from each division of the high court of justice in England, direct to the court of appeal, tlr msted in the house of lords, as the supreme court of appeal, and consists of the lord chancellor, and the chiefs of the divisions, and the judges of the privy council.
In Scotland before the union, the exchequer was the king's revenue court. It con sisted of the treasurer, the treasurer-depute, and as many of the lords of exchequer as the king was pleased to appoint (Ersk. i. 3, 30). The Scottish court of exchequer was continued by the 19th article of the treaty of union, until a new court should be estab lished, which was effected by 6 Anne, c. 26. A privative jurisdiction was conferred on the court as to questions relating to revenues and customs of excise; and as to all honors and estates real and personal, and forfeitures and penalties arising to the crown within Scotland. But questions of title to lands, honors, etc., were reserved to the court of session. The judges of the court were the high treasurer of Great Britain, the chief baron, and four other barons; and English barristers as well as Scotch advocates were allowed to practice in the court. In cases of difficulty, and where there was a collision of jurisdictions, it was formerly not unusual to hold conferences with the barons; and the form of desiring the conference was to send the lord advocate, and, in his absence, the solicitor-general, to request a meeting, though it has been doubted whether they were bound to carry the message (Shand's Practice, 27). By 2 Will. IV. c. 54, it was provided that successors should not be appointed to such of the barons as should retire or die, and that the duties of the court should be discharged by a judge of the court of session. And now, by 19 and 20 Viet. c. 56, the court of exchequer is abolished. and the jurisdiction transferred entirely to the court of session.
The court of exchequer chamber in Ireland was established by 40 Geo. III. c. 39, but was abolished as an intermediate court of appeal between the Irish courts and the high court in England.