Charlton v Morris

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 07 November 1894
• Date: 07 November 1894
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)

Charlton

and

Morris (1).

Appeal.

DETERMINED BY

THE QUEEN'S BENCH AND EXCHEQUER DIVISIONS

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND BY

THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL,

AND BY

THE COURT FOR CROWN CASES RESERVED.

1895.

Parliament — Registration of voters — Inhabitant occupier — Compulsory absence during part of qualifying period — Imprisonment on remand without bail — No trial before Revision Sessions,

Patrick Morris was arrested, and remanded without bail to Petty Sessions. At Petty Sessions he was returned for trial (bail being accepted) to Quarter Sessions. His trial had not taken place at the time the Revision Sessions were held:—

Held (Fitz Gibbon, L.J., dissenting), that his innocence was to be presumed until his guilt was proved, and that he was not to be deprived of the franchise by his compulsory absence until his guilt was proved.

Appeal by the objector against the decision of Mr. D. B. Sullivan, Q. C., one of the Revising Barristers for North Fermanagh.

The facts appear from the case stated which was as follows:—

“The name of Patrick Morris appeared at No. 36 on the Clerk of the Union's Supplemental List of Inhabitant Occupiers (No. 12) as the inhabitant occupier of a house at Forthill, and he was objected to on the grounds that he had not inhabited said house during the whole of the qualifying period.

The right of the said Patrick Morris to be registered was admitted by the objector save for the following question of law:—

The said Patrick Morris was, during the qualifying period, arrested by the police on a criminal charge, and on the day of his arrest was brought before a magistrate, who remanded him upon warrant to gaol for a week without bail. During this week Morris was confined in Sligo gaol, and on its expiration he was brought up at Petty Sessions, and the charge having been investigated, informations were taken, and he was returned for trial at the Quarter Sessions, and allowed out on bail pending trial, which has not yet taken place.

Under these circumstances, it was contended on behalf of the objector that the said Patrick Morris was disqualified by reason of his having been compulsorily absent from his said house during the week above-mentioned.

On behalf of the said Patrick Morris it was contended that as his trial had not yet taken place I was bound to assume him innocent of the charge, and that therefore his confinement in gaol was his misfortune and not his fault.

I yielded...