MASTER IN CHANCERY. An officer of a court of chancery, who acts as an assistant to the chancellor. Stewart v. Turner, 3 Edw. Ch. (N. Y.) 458; Brush v. Blanchard, 19 111. 31.
A master in chancery is an officer appoint ed by a court to assist it in various proceed ings incidental to the progress of the case before it, and is usually employed to take and state accounts, to take and report tes timony, and to perform such duties as re quire computation of interest, the value of annuities, the amount of damages in partic ular cases, the auditing and ascertaining of liens upon property involved, and similar services. The information which he may communicate by his findings in such cases, upon the evidence presented to him, is mere ly advisory to the court, which it may accept and act upon, or disregard in whole or in part, according to its own judgment as to the weight of the evidence; Quinby v. Con lon, 104 U. S. 420, 26 L. Ed. 800.
The masters were originally clerks associated with the chancellor, to discharge some of the more mechanical duties of hie office. They were called collaterales, socii and preceptores, and gradually in creased in number until there were twelve of them. They obtained the title of masters in the reign of Edw. HI. See 1 Spence,' Eq. Jur. 360-367 ; Whip ple v. Brown, Harr. Ch. (Mich.) 436 ; In re Gibbes, 1 Des. Ch. (S. C.) 587. They originally superin tended the issue of original writs ; acted occasion ally as the king's secretary; attended the House of Lords without writs ; and assisted the Council and Chancery. Later, their chief duty was to assist the Chancellor in hearing cases, and he could delegate to them the duty of hearing and reporting upon certain parts of a case. 1 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 212. As to the early history of masters, see Scrutton, 1 Bel. Essays in Anglo-Amer. L. H. 215. The office was abolished in England by 15 & 16 Vict. c. 80. At present each of the three groups of puisne judges in the Chancery Division has four masters, who deal with any matter which they are directed by a judge to investigate. The judges in the King's Bench Division are assisted by nine masters, who must have been practising barristers or special pleaders or solicitors of five years' standing. The central office of the Supreme Court is under their superintendence and they can transact all such In terlocutory business and exercise such authority as a judge in chambers, except in certain specified cases.
In the United States, officers of this name ex ist in many of the states, with similar powers to those exercised by the English masters, but various ly modified, restricted, and enlarged by statute, and in some of the states similar officers are called commissioners and by other titles.
The master's office is a branch of the court and he has power to control the proceedings of parties be fore him ; Stewart V. Turner, 3 Edw. Ch. (N. Y.) 458.
In Com. V. Archbald, 195 Pa. 317, 46 AU. 5, it is pointed out that a practice had grown up in the equity courts of Pennsylvania prior to 1860 by which the "instrumentalities of equity were not infre quently applied to matters not within their province by the established practice of the English chan cery." The office of master outgrew its position as a mere executive or administrative arm of the court, and usurped, or had impoeed upon it, func tions which were strictly judicial. The office of master "is a necessary part of the equipment of a court of chancery, extending back at least to the time of Edward III" ; Bennet, Master's Office in the Court of Chancery, 1.
It is not within the genera] province of a master to pass upon all the issues in an equity case, nor is it competent for the court to refer the entire decision of a case to him without the consent of the parties. It can not, of its own motion, or upon the request of one party, abdicate its duty to determine by its own judgment the controversy pre sented, and devolve that duty upon any of its officers ; Field, J., in Kimberly v. Arms, 129 U. S. 524, 9 Sup. Ct. 355, 32 L. Ed. 764. But when the parties consent to the refer ence of a case to a master to hear and decide all the issues therein and such reference is entered as a rule of the court, the determina tions of the master are not subject to be set aside and disregarded at the mere discre tion of the court: A reference by consent of parties of an entire case, though not strictly a submission of the controversy to 'arbitra tion—a proceeding which is governed by spe cial rule—is a submission of the controversy to a tribunal of the parties' own selection, to be governed in its conduct by the rules ap plicable to the administration of justice in tribunals established by law. Its findings, like those of an independent tribunal, are to be taken as presumptively correct, to be re viewed under the reservation contained iu the consent and order of the court when there has been manifest error in the consid eration given to the evidence, or in the ap plication of the law, but not otherwise ; id.