Sheane Wicklow and Baltinglass No. 1 Rural District Council

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)
• Judgment Date: 08 May 1919
• Date: 08 May 1919

Appeal.

Shaw v. Wicklow Co. Council.

ROBERT SHAW

Applicant

COUNTY COUNCIL OF WICKLOW AND BALTINGLASS No. 1 RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL, Respondents (1)

Malicious injury - Information - Essential averments - Knowledge as to person committing injury - Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Wm. 4,c. 116), sect. 137.

Case Stated for the Court of Appeal by Mr. Justice Gibson as Judge of Assize in the county Wicklow at the Spring Assizes, 1919, on the hearing of an appeal from the County Court Judge under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, sect. 5.

Robert Shaw had applied for compensation for loss sustained by the malicious burning of a cowhouse, and the County Court Judge awarded him £70, with costs and expenses. The information made by the applicant, having set out the nature of the injuries to his property, stated:—"And deponent further saith that a man named Joseph Cranny has been remanded to Mountjoy jail on the charge of having committed the above offence." The information contained a recognizance in the following terms:—"And the said informant binds himself to attend when and where called upon to give evidence against the said accused for said offence, or otherwise to forfeit to the Crown the sum of £5."

On the hearing of the appeal before Mr. Justice Gibson the preliminary objection was raised that the information and recognizance were insufficient under sect. 137 of the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 116), and the rules there-under. Subject to this objection, the learned Judge decided that the decree of the County Court Judge should be affirmed, with £8 costs of appeal and £7 for witnesses' expenses. Should the

preliminary objection be allowed, the decree was to be reversed and the claim dismissed, with twelve guineas costs of appeal and six guineas costs in the Court below.

At the request of the county council he stated a case; and the question for the Court of Appeal was: whether the preliminary objection was valid and should be allowed.

In his examination upon oath under sect. 137 of the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 116), to ground an application for malicious injury to property the deponent must specify whether he knows or does not know the person or persons who committed the injury; and a statement that a certain person had been remanded to jail on the charge of having committed the offence is not a compliance with the section.

Molony C.J. :—

By sect. 137 of the Grand Jury...