State (H.) v Daly

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1977
• Date: 01 January 1977
• Docket Number: [1976 No. 11 SS.]
• Court: Supreme Court

The State (H.) v. Daly

The State (H.)

and

Liam Daly

[1976 No. 11 SS.]

High Court

Supreme Court

Constitution - Personal rights - Liberty - Civil contempt of court - Summary trial - Detention in prison - Detainee of unsound mind - Transfer to mental hospital - Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum (Ir.) Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 107), s. 12 - Criminal Justice Act, 1960 (No. 27), s. 8 - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Article 40.

The prosecutor was the defendant in civil proceedings which were tried in the Circuit Court. He failed to obey an order of that court and the plaintiff then applied to the court to have the prosecutor attached for contempt of court. The trial judge found the prosecutor to be in contempt of court and committed him to prison until he should purge his contempt. While he was in prison, the prosecutor was found to be of unsound mind and he was transferred to the Central Mental Hospital by an order of the Minister for Justice (as successor of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) made pursuant to s. 12 of the Act of 1845. That section enables the Minister for Justice to order that a person "under any sentence of imprisonment"in any place of confinement who has been certified to be insane shall be removed to the Central Mental Hospital and shall be there confined so long as he shall remain subject to be continued in custody or until he shall be duly certified to have become of sound mind.

The prosecutor obtained in the High Court a conditional order of habeas corpus and he then applied for an order absolute, notwithstanding the cause shown by the respondent.

Held by Finlay P., in allowing the cause shown and discharging the conditional order, 1, that the Circuit Court judge had acted within his jurisdiction in deciding in a summary manner, and without a jury, the issue raised by the plaintiff's motion for an order of attachment for contempt.

The State (Commins) v. McRann [1977] I.R. 78 applied.

2. That the prosecutor could not contend, in habeas corpus proceedings, that the committal order of the Circuit Court was invalid on the ground that the prosecutor had been unable, through illness, to form the mens rea necessary to disobey the prior order of the Circuit Court, and that, in any event, there was evidence that his mental condition had not been such as to prevent him obeying the prior order.

3. That the provisions of s. 12 of the Act of 1845, as amended, were not inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution and did not infringe any of the personal rights guaranteed by Article 40 of the Constitution.

4. That the prosecutor would remain in lawful custody pursuant to the order of the Minister and the Act of 1845 even if the prosecutor had purged his contempt or if the plaintiff waived compliance with the order disobeyed by the prosecutor.

On appeal by the prosecutor it was

Held by the Supreme Court (O'Higgins C.J., Henchy and Parke JJ.), in disallowing the appeal, 1, that the determination of an issue as to whether or not a person was guilty of a civil contempt of court did not require a trial by jury.

The State (Commins) v. McRann [1977] I.R. 78 approved.

2. That a person who is detained in a prison pursuant to a committal order until he purges his contempt of court is under a "sentence of imprisonment" within the meaning of s. 12 of the Act of 1845.

3. That the evidence established that the nature of the prosecutor's mental illness was not such as to have furnished a reason for not making the committal order.

Habeas Corpus.

On the 26th January, 1976, the prosecutor applied in the High Court (Finlay P.) and obtained an order pursuant to Article 40, s. 4, sub-s. 2, of the Constitution directing the respondent (the Clinical Director of the Central, Mental Hospital) to produce the body of the prosecutor and to certify in writing the grounds of his detention. By his certificate dated the 30th January, 1976, the respondent stated that the prosecutor had been received into the Central Mental Hospital pursuant to an order of the Minister for Justice dated the 24th December, 1974, and made pursuant to the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum (Ireland) Act, 1845, as adapted.

Section 39 of the Mental Treatment Act, 1961, provides that the central criminal lunatice asylum established pursuant to the Act of 1845 shall be styled and known as the Central Mental Hospital. The terms of s. 12 of the Act of 1845 appear at p. 96, infra. On the 12th November, 1968, the Supreme Court held in The State (Murtagh) v. The Governor of the Central Mental Hospital that the powers conferred on the Lord Lieutenant by s. 12 of the Act of 1845 were exercisable by the Minister for Justice.

On the 9th March, 1976, the prosecutor applied for an order releasing him from custody pursuant to Article 40, s. 4, of the Constitution, notwithstanding the cause shown by the respondent.

The...