The Chancery Amendment Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 27) also known as Lord Cairns' Act after Sir Hugh Cairns, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed the English Court of Chancery, the Irish Chancery and the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster to award damages, in addition to their previous function of awarding injunctions and specific performance. The Act also made several procedural changes to the Chancery courts, most notably allowing them to call a jury, and allowed the Lord Chancellor to amend the practice regulations of the courts. By allowing the Chancery courts to award damages it narrowed the gap between the common law and equity courts and accelerated the passing of the Judicature Act 1873, and for that reason has been described by Ernest Pollock as "prophetic".
After the English Court of Chancery was dissolved by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 the Act lost relevance, and in England and Wales it was gradually repealed by a succession of acts up to the 1880s. The Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Act 1877, which reorganised the Superior Courts in Ireland to create the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, similarly reduced the relevance of the Act in the Republic of Ireland.
During the 19th century the higher courts were divided into two main types—courts of Common Law, such as the Court of Common Pleas, and Courts of Equity such as the Court of Chancery; this reflected the two English court systems which had existed since the Middle Ages. Rules on court jurisdiction meant that common law courts could not grant orders of specific performance or injunctions, only damages, and courts of equity could only grant injunctions and orders of specific performance, not damages. This meant that a winning party in a chancery case who sought to claim damages was forced to open a second claim in a common law court, filling the courts with unnecessary cases and causing additional expense for the parties. The same was true of winners of common law cases who sought specific performance or injunctions.
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