VENUE (vieinetum,visne," neighbour hood "). The county in which the trial of a particular cause takes place is said to be the Venue of that cause. The old practice in this matter is connected with the original functions of the jury, as per sons who were acquainted with the facts in issue. [JURY.] In order then that a proper Venire might issue to the sheriff, the place in which the action was brought was stated in the margin of the declara tion, and on the statement throughout the pleadings of any issuable fact a state ment was also made of the place at which such fact was alleged to have occurred. As to all such facts upon which issue was taken, a venire was sued out applying to each different place. The sheriff returned jurors from that place, and by those jurors the facts were decided, so that several distinct Venires mai trials might be necessary to dispose of the issues in one action.
When juries ceased to act on their own knowledge, and began to deter mine on the evidence of witnesses, the necessity ceased for summoning thein from the particular part of the county, and the practice gradually declined, till at last, the form of the Venire still continuing the same, two jurors from the same hundred only were required for the trial of a personal action. By the star 16 & 17 Car. II. c. 8, it was enacted that no error should be brought, because there was no right Venue, provided the cause was tried by a jury of the proper county or place where the action was brought. After this statute the practice was estab lished of trying all the issues by the jury of the general Venue in the action. By 4 Ann. c. 16, it was further enacted that "every Venire Facias for the trial of any issue shall be awarded of the body of the proper county where such issue is tri able :" that is, from the county at large, without reference to the particular hint dred containing the place laid as Venue, and such is still the practice. By a general rule of all the courts, of Hilary Term, 4 Wm. IV., it is ordered, that " In future the name of a county shall in all cases be stated in the margin of a de claration, and shall be taken to be the Venue intended by the plaintiff, and no Venue shall be stated in the body of the declaration, or in any subsequent plead ing," A distinction was long since estab lished between local (that is, actions re lating to'real estate) and transitory (that is, actions of debt, contract, for personal injuries, &c). In regard to the former, it
was held that the actual place in which the subject-matter was situated must be laid as the Venue in the action, and that rule still prevails. The reason is said to proceed from the circumstance that, un less the action were brought in the actual county, the sheriff of the county would be unable to give effect to the judgment in the action. In transitory actions, on the contrary. the subject-matter of them being held not to have any fixed place, the plaintiff had liberty to bring his action in any county in which he pleased. As a consequence of which it follows, that though the cause of action has occurred even out of the kingdom, it is still open to the plaintiff to bring his action in the courts of this country. The plaintiff has still this liberty in a transitory action. But the courts assert an authority upon application made to them of changing the Venue. This is done upon its being made to appear that great inconvenience would arise from trying in the original county, because the body of the evidence lies in another, or because from local prejudices a fair trial cannot be had, &c. And the same authority is exercised even in local actions in spite of the technical difficulty which has been before referred to. (3 Blackstone's Com., 294, 384 ; Stephens On Pleading, c. ii., s. 4, v. I.) In criminal trials the Venue is the county in which the offence charged was actually committed ; before a grand jury of that county the indictment must be preferred, and before a petty jury the trial had. The courts however have the same discretion as to the power of chang ing the Venue as in civil cases; and as to criminal trials, many exceptions have been introduced by various statutes.