State (McGroddy) v Carr

JurisdictionIreland
Judgment Date01 January 1975
Date01 January 1975
Docket Number[1973 No. 267 SS.]
CourtSupreme Court
(S.C.)
State (McGroddy)
and
Carr

Uncertainty -Duplicity - Charge of driving while under the influence of "intoxicating liquor or a drug" -Whether one or two offences - Road Traffic Act, 1961 (No. 24), s. 49.

The prosecutor had been charged in the District Court with having driven on a certain occasion a motor car in a public place "while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a drug" to such an extent as to have been incapable of having proper control of the said vehicle contrary to s. 49 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961; and he had been convicted of "the said offence". The prosecutor obtained in the High Court an absolute order of certiorari quashing the order of conviction, made by the respondent District Justice, on the ground that such order was bad for duplicity. On appeal by the respondent it was Held by the Supreme Court (Henchy and Griffin JJ.; Walsh J. dissenting), in allowing the appeal, that the prosecutor had been convicted of a single offence and that, accordingly, the order of conviction was...

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10 cases
  • DPP v Brown
    • Ireland
    • Supreme Court
    • 21 December 2018
    ...in - (a) the enactment itself, or (b) the Act under which the enactment is made.’ In the case of The State (McGroddy) v. Carr [1975] I.R. 275 at p. 285 it was stated by Henchy J. that: ‘… when expressions are repeated in the same instrument, and more especially in a particular part of the ......
  • DPP v Doherty (1), DPP v Doherty (2), DPP v Doherty (3)
    • Ireland
    • Supreme Court
    • 24 July 2020
    ...a principle only, rather than a rule, but it is a useful principle. (For examples of its application, see The State (McGroddy) v. Carr [1975] I.R. 275 and The People (Director of Public Prosecutions) v. Brown [2018] IESC 67.) In the context of the Act of 1997, I would accept that the mean......
  • Higgins v The Irish Aviation Authority White v Sunday Newspapers Ltd
    • Ireland
    • Supreme Court
    • 10 July 2018
    ...Court went on to note the 'fundamental rule' of interpretation spoken of by Henchy J. in the case of the State (McGroddy) v. Carr [1975] I.R. 275, 285 - 286 in which Henchy J. stated: '... when expressions are repeated in the same instrument and more especially in a particular part of the ......
  • Navratil v an Bord Pleanala
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 12 May 2020
    ...this principle of construction now has an express statutory basis in s. 20 of the Interpretation Act, 2005. In State (McGroddy) v. Carr [1975] I.R. 275 Henchy J. commented that it was a “fundamental rule of interpretation that when expressions are repeated in the same instrument, and more e......
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