R (Grant) v Justices of Louth

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: K. B. Div.
• Judgment Date: 29 October 1913
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)
• Date: 29 October 1913

The King (Grand).

and

The Justices Of Louth (1).

K. B. Div.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE KING'S BENCH DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL,

AND BY

THE COURT FOR CROWN CASES RESERVED.

1914.

Justices — Summary Jurisdiction — Procedure — Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c. 103), ss. 80, 90, 91 — Plying for hire with hackney carriage without a licence — Procedure under Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851 (14 & 15 Vict. c. 93), not applicable — Order of Justices imposing imprisonment in default of payment of penalty — Necessity of using words “unless penalty and costs sooner paid” — Certiorari — Costs of unsuccessful prosecutor.

Held, that the proceedings to cover such penalty were governed by the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854, and not by the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, and that certiorari did not therefore lie in respect of the entry in the order-book.

Held, also, that there was no jurisdiction to give G. the costs of the application, but that it should be refused without costs.

The prosecutor, Felix Grant, was defendant in a summons in which the clerk of the urban district council of Dundalk,

acting for the said council, was complainant. The summons charged that the defendant on the 1st May, 1913, at Dundalk, within the prescribed distance, was found driving for hire a hackney carriage, same not being duly licensed by the said council to ply for hire; and that the defendant on that day at Dundalk, within the prescribed distance, was found standing for hire, with a hackney carriage, same not being duly licensed by the said council to ply for hire; and that the defendant on that day at Dundalk, within the prescribed distance, was found plying for hire with a hackney carriage, same not being duly licensed by the said council to ply for hire.

The complaint was heard at the Borough Court for the town of Dundalk, and the justices present made an order which was entered in the petty sessions order-book. The certificate of this order set out as follows:—

“I certify that upon the hearing of a complaint that defendant on the 1st day of May, 1913, at Dundalk, in the county of Louth, within the prescribed distance was found driving, standing, and plying for hire with a certain hackney carriage, to wit a jaunting car, same not being duly licensed by the said council to ply for hire, contrary to the statute in that behalf, an order was made on the 31st day of July, 1913, by the justices present against the said Felix Grant, of Crossmaglen in the county of Armagh, to the following effect, viz.: That defendant pay for fine the sum of £1, for costs 5s., total £1 5s.; or in default of payment to be imprisoned for fourteen days in Dundalk jail.”

The prosecutor herein obtained a conditional order for a writ of certiorari, to bring up and quash this conviction on the grounds that it was bad on its face, because: 1. The magistrates had no power by the conviction to order imprisonment in default of payment of the fine. 2. That no warrant for distress was ever issued. 3. That the said order omitted the words, “unless said sum be sooner paid.” And that the order was bad for uncertainty. Cause having been shown by the urban district council, the present application was on behalf of the prosecutor to make the conditional order absolute notwithstanding cause.

Cause having been shown by the urban district council, the present application was on behalf of the prosecutor to make the conditional order absolute notwithstanding cause.

Lupton, for the prosecutor:—

The summons is brought for an offence under sect. 80 of the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854. That section creates three offences, and all three are charged in the summons, viz...