Undertakings:infant cases
Litigation
31/08/2001
Practitioners are reminded that the procedure governing the settlement or compromise of actions in infant cases is governed by order 22 of the Superior court rules.
Order 22, rule 10(1) provides (among other things) that no settlement or compromise or payment or acceptance of money paid into court, either before, at or after trial, shall, as regards the claim of an infant, be valid without the approval of the court.
The absolute jurisdiction of the court in such cases cannot be compromised or pre-empted by undertakings given before the matter has been ruled. Practitioners should therefore decline to furnish undertakings in such cases.