N.I.Effect of Schemes on Contracts
12Effect of schemes on contracts.N.I.
(1)Subject to subsection (2), a contract of which neither the making nor the performance was, at the time when the contract was made, prohibited by or under any scheme in force shall not, unless the terms of the contract otherwise provide, be void or unenforceable by reason that, at the time for the performance of any provision of the contract, the performance thereof is so prohibited.
(2)Where the performance of any such contract as is referred to in subsection (1) is prohibited by or under any scheme in force, subsection (1) shall cease to apply to that contract upon the expiration of three months after the prohibition first takes effect, unless that contract is registered under section 13.
(3)Where, in conformity with a scheme in force, any contract for the sale of the regulated product by a registered producer otherwise than to, or through the agency of, the board purports to confer on the board any right to receive from the purchaser the whole or any part of the purchase price payable under the contract or of any damages for which the purchaser may be liable in respect of a wrongful rejection of articles tendered in accordance with the contract, the board may enforce that right against the purchaser, notwithstanding that the board are not a party to the contract and notwithstanding that, as between the board and the purchaser, there is no consideration.
(4)A person shall not be liable to any penalty in respect of a contravention of any scheme, if he proves that the contravention was necessary for the performance of a contract which, by reason of subsections (1) and (2), was not, at the time of the contravention void or unenforceable.
13Registration of certain contracts.N.I.
(1)It shall be the duty of the board, on the application of any party to such a contract as is referred to in section 12(1), to register the contract within the period of fourteen days after the application is made, unless—
(a)the application is made after the said section 12(1) has, by virtue of section 12(2), ceased to apply to the contract; or
(b)as respects a contract made during the relevant period, the board are of opinion that the contract was made with a view to evading the operation of the scheme by or under which the performance of the contract is prohibited.
(2)Any party to a contract who is aggrieved by the omission of a board to register the contract within the period referred to in subsection (1), may, within twenty-one days after the expiration of that period, appeal to the court, and, pending the determination of any such appeal, section 12(1) shall, notwithstanding anything in section 12(2), continue to apply to the contract.
(3)On any appeal under this section, the board concerned and any party to the contract may appear and be heard, and if, on the hearing of any such appeal, the court finds—
(a)that the application for registration of the contract was made before the expiration of the period on the expiration of which section 12(1) ceased, by virtue of section 12(2), to apply to the contract; and
(b)as respects a contract made during the relevant period, that the contract was not made with a view to evading the operation of the scheme;
the court shall by order direct the registration of the contract, and thereupon the contract shall be deemed to have been registered as from the date of the order.
(4)Where the court does not by order direct the registration of a contract made during the relevant period, any party to that contract who is certified by the court to have entered into the contract in good faith without a view to evading the operation of the scheme may recover the amount of any damage suffered by him by reason of the avoidance of the contract from any party thereto who is certified by the court to have entered into the contract with a view to evading the operation of the scheme.
(5)For the purposes of an appeal under this section with respect to any contract, the court shall, subject to subsection (6), be the county court F1....
(6)Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (5)—
(a)if, before proceedings in respect of any appeal under this section are commenced in the county court, the board and all parties to the contract agree that the appeal should be heard by the High Court, the High Court shall be the court for the purposes of the appeal; and
Para. (b) rep. by 1978 c. 23
(7)For the purposes of this section, the expression “the relevant period” , in relation to a scheme, means a period beginning twelve months before the date when notice of the framing of the scheme was published by the Ministry and ending six months after the date when the scheme comes into force.
F1Words in s. 13(5) repealed (31.10.2016) by Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 (c. 9), s. 106(2), Sch. 1 para. 56, Sch. 9 Pt. 1 (with Sch. 8 para. 1); S.R. 2016/387, art. 2(k)(m) (with art. 3)