Minister for Supplies v Connor

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 27 April 1945
• Date: 27 April 1945
• Court: High Court

Minister for Supplies

and

Connor

District Court summons charging defendant with offence unknown to the law - Summons struck out -Second summons correctly charging offence intended to have been charged by first summons - Whether defendant entitled to plead autrefois acquit - Effect of District Justice's order to strike out.

The defendant was charged in a summons with having made false and misleading entries "in contravention of Article 3 (4) of the Emergency Powers Acts, 1939 to 1943," in a form which he was required to complete by virtue of the Emergency Powers (Tea Retailers) Order, 1942. The said Acts did not contain any Article such as that referred to, and the District Justice, on the application of the defendant, made an order striking out the summons. Subsequently, in a second summons, the defendant was again charged, in relation to the same facts, with having made false and misleading entries "in contravention of Article 3 (4) of the Emergency Powers (No. 177) Order, 1942, contrary to the Emergency Powers Acts, 1939 to 1943." The District Justice, on the application of the defendant, dismissed the second summons, holding that his previous order striking out the first summons was equivalent to dismissing it, and accordingly that the defendant, having been in jeopardy on the hearing of the first summons, was entitledto rely upon a plea of autrefois acquit as a defence to the second summons. On the matter coming before the High Court upon a Case Stated by the District Justice: Held, that a conviction on the first summons could not have been sustained and must have been quashed on certiorari as a matter of right, and that, since the defendant, therefore, had not been in peril of conviction at the hearing of that summons, he was not entitled, as a defence to the second summons, to raise the plea of autrefois acquit, and that the District Justice was wrong in so dismissing the second summons. Semble: An order made by a District Justice to "strike out" a summons constitutes a dismissal of the summons.

Minister for Supplies

and

Connor

District Court summons charging defendant with offence unknown to the law - Summons struck out -Second summons correctly charging offence intended to have been charged by first summons - Whether defendant entitled to plead autrefois acquit - Effect of District Justice's order to strike out.

The defendant was charged in a summons with having made false and misleading entries "in contravention...