State (Harrington) v District Justice Wallace

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: WALSH J.
• Judgment Date: 27 July 1988
• Neutral Citation: 1988 WJSC-SC 1280
• Date: 27 July 1988
• Court: Supreme Court
• Docket Number: [1984 No. 367 SS],303/85

1988 WJSC-SC 1280

THE SUPREME COURT

Walsh J.

Griffin J.

Hederman J.

303/85

State HARRINGTON v. WALLACE

THE STATE (AT THE PROSECUTION OF DENIS HARRINGTON)

Prosecutor

and

DISTRICT JUSTICE BRENDAN WALLACE

Respondent

Citations:

COUNTY MANAGEMENT ACT 1940 S17

COUNTY MANAGEMENT ACT 1940 S19

SHEEP DIPPING ORDER 1965 (AMDT) ORDER 1976 SI 107/1976

SHEEP DIPPING ORDER 1965 (AMDT) ORDER 1977 SI 158/1977

DISEASES OF ANIMALS ACT 1966 S38

KRUSE V JOHNSON 1898 2 QB 91

SHEEP DIPPING ORDER 1965 SI 105/1965

Synopsis:

CRIMINAL LAW

Offence

Bye-law - Validity - Contravention - County Council - Reserved functions - Sheep-dipping regulations made by county council - Whether regulations were bye-laws - The applicant was convicted in the District Court of a summary offence which was constituted by the applicant's contravention of part of the provisions of the Regulations of 1983; the respondent District Justice ordered the applicant to pay a fine and ordered that, in default of payment of the fine, the applicant should serve seven days imprisonment - The applicant obtained a conditional order of certiorari quashing his conviction on the ground that the Regulations of 1983 were invalid but, on 5th November, 1984, the cause shown against the conditional order was allowed by the High Court (D'Arcy J.) and the conditional order was discharged - The applicant appealed against the order of the High Court - Section 17 of the Act of 1940 provides (inter alia) that every power, function or duty of a county council which is not a reserved function shall be an executive function for the purposes of the Act, and that the county manager shall exercise and perform for the county council all its executive functions - Section 16, sub-s. 2, of the Act provides that, subject as therein, every county council shall directly exercise and perform the powers, functions and duties in relation to the reserved functions mentioned in the second schedule to the Act, and that schedule includes the making, amending and revoking of bye-laws - By s. 38 of the Act of 1966 the Minister for Health is empowered to authorise a local authority to make regulations for any of the purposes of the Act, and Cork County Council had been so authorised to make the Regulations of 1983 - The applicant did not contend that those regulations had been made ~ultra vires~ Cork County Council in respect of their content but he submitted that the Regulations of 1983 were not bye-laws within the meaning of the second schedule to the Act of 1940 - The recital to the Regulations of 1983 stated that Cork County Council, being the local authority under the Disease of Animals Acts for the administrative county of Cork and "acting through and by the Cork County Manager, hereby ... make the following Regulations ..." - Those regulations conferred certain discretions on the county manager in relation to whether, in certain circumstances, the requirements of the regulations had been satisfied - Held, in disallowing the appeal, that the mention of the county manager in the recital to the Regulations of 1983 and in the body of those regulations and the description of that instrument as "Regulations", did not affect the resolution of the issue whether those regulations were bye-laws within the meaning of the second schedule to the Act of 1940 and, therefore, properly made by Cork County Council in performance of a reserved function - Held that the Regulations of 1983 were such bye-laws since they constituted an ordinance affecting the public, or some portion of the public, and they had been imposed by an authority with statutory powers and they ordered something to be done, or not done, with a sanction or penalty for non- observance of the ordinance: ~Kruse v. Johnson~ [1898] 2 Q.B. 91 considered - Sheep Dipping Regulations, 1983 - County Management Act, 1940, ss. 16, 17, 19 - Disease of Animals Act, 1966, s. 38 - (303/85 - Supreme Court - 27/7/88) - [1988] I.R. 290

|The State (Harrington) v. Wallace|

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Local authority

Statute - Powers - Exercise - County Council - Reserved functions - Bye-laws - Regulations made by county council for control of animal disease - Whether regulations constituted bye-laws - ~See~ Criminal Law, offence - (303/85 - Supreme Court - 27/7/88)

|The State (Harrington) v. Wallace|

WORDS AND PHRASES

"Bye-law"

Local authority - Powers - Reserved function - Animal disease - Control - Sheep dipping - Contravention of regulations made by county council - Whether regulations should have been made by county manager - ~See~ Criminal Law, offence - (303/85 - Supreme Court - ...