DPP v Kemmy

JurisdictionIreland
Judgment Date25 March 1980
Date25 March 1980
Docket Number[1979 No. 301 SS.]
CourtSupreme Court
(S.C.)
Director of Public Prosecutions
and
Kemmy

Completion of statutory form - Form to be completed and signed by doctor - Completed form to be sent to statutory body - Doctor completing and signing upper of two duplicate forms - Doctor's entries appearing instantaneously on lower duplicate - Lower duplicate sent to statutory body - Requirements of statute satisfied - Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 1978 (No. 19), ss. 21, 23.

Section 23, sub-s. 3, of the Act of 1978 states that a certificate expressed to have been issued by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety pursuant to s. 22 of the Act shall be sufficient evidence, until the contrary is shown, of the facts certified to in it with regard to the concentration of alcohol found by the Bureau in a specimen of urine which has been sent to the Bureau pursuant to s. 21 of the Act. A medical practitioner who receives a specimen of urine pursuant to the provisions of Part III of the Act is obliged by sub-s. 1 of s. 21 to complete and sign a prescribed form stating (inter alia) that he was provided with the specimen, and that he placed it in a container which he labelled. Sub-section 3 of s. 21 provides for "the completed form referred to in subsection (1)" being sent to the Bureau together with the relevant container. The defendant was tried in the District Court on a complaint that he had driven a motor vehicle on a certain occasion when there was present in his urine an unlawful concentration of alcohol contrary to s. 49, sub-s. 3, of the Road Traffic Act, 1961. At the trial the complainant adduced in evidence a certificate of the Bureau stating that the concentration of alcohol in the relevant specimen exceeded the permitted level. It was established that the medical practitioner who had furnished the prescribed form pursuant to s. 21 of the Act of 1978 had completed and signed duplicate forms when one lay exactly underneath the other and that the forms...

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33 cases
  • DPP (at the suit of Garda Conor Gurn) v McGrath
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 12 April 2019
    ...24 Reliance is placed on the following passage from the judgment of O'Higgins C.J. in Director of Public Prosecutions v. Kemmy [1980] I.R. 160 at 164. ‘Where a statute provides for a particular form of proof or evidence on compliance with certain provisions, in my view it is essential that......
  • DPP (O'Reilly) v Barnes
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 18 July 2005
    ...content. The following passage from the dissenting judgment of O'Higgins C.J. in the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v. Kemmy [1980] I.R. 160 at p. 164 illustrates the first of these principles where he says: "Where a statute provides for a particular form of proof or evidence in co......
  • DPP v Freeman
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 21 April 2009
    ...ACT 1994 S13(2) ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1994 S13(1)(A) DPP v KEOGH UNREP MURPHY 9.2.2004 (EX TEMPORE) ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1994 S21(1) DPP v KEMMY 1980 IR 160 SUMMARY JURISDICTION ACT 1857 S3 ROAD TRAFFIC (AMDT) ACT 1978 S21 DPP v SOMERS 1999 1 IR 115 1998/16/611 DPP (O'REILLY) v BARNES 2005 4 IR 17......
  • DPP v Avadenei
    • Ireland
    • Court of Appeal (Ireland)
    • 10 May 2016
    ...of his judgment, Noonan J. conducted an extensive review of relevant case law including The Director of Public Prosecutions v. Kemmy [1980] I.R. 160; The Director of Public Prosecutions v. Collins [1981] I.L.R.M. 447; The Director of Public Prosecutions v. O'Neill (Unreported, Supreme Cou......
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