The King (Haslett) v Justices of Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 27 January 1904
• Date: 27 January 1903
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

The King (Haslett)

and

Justices of Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh (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.

1904.

Licensing Acts — Indorsing conviction on license — Incorporation of statutes — Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act, 1901 (1 Edw. 7, c. 27) — Licensing (Ireland) Act, 1874 (37 ∓ 38 Vict. c. 69), s. 21.

A publican having been convicted, under the Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act, 1901, for selling intoxicating liquor to a child under fourteen contrary to the provisions of the Act:—

Held, that the conviction could not be ordered to be indorsed on his license.

Certiorari.

The prosecutor, the holder of a publican's license, was charged on summons before the Justices at Petty Sessions, under sect. 2 of the Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act, 1901, with selling intoxicating liquor to a person under the age of fourteen, such intoxicating liquor not being in corked and sealed vessels in quantities not less than one reputed pint for consumption off the premises only. The Justices convicted him, fined him 40s., and 6s. costs, and ordered the conviction to be indorsed on his license. The prosecutor having obtained a conditional order for a writ of certiorari to quash the conviction, on the ground that the offence in question was not one in respect of which the Justices had jurisdiction to order a conviction to be indorsed on the license, the present application was on behalf of District-Inspector Charles E. Murphy, the complainant below, to discharge the conditional order.

The Solicitor-General (Campbell, K.C.) (with him Moriarty), for the complainant below:—

Section 4 of the 1 Ed. 7, c. 27, the Act under which the conviction took place, provides that for the purpose of all legal proceedings under that Act, the Act is to be construed in Ireland

as one with the Licensing (Ireland) Acts, 1833-1900. The statutes so incorporated include the Licensing (Ireland) Act, 1874, the 21st section of which provides that a conviction for any offence against that Act may be recorded. Where it is enacted that two Acts are to be read together, every part of each Act must be construed as if the two Acts had been one: Hardcastle on Statutes, page 230. The case, therefore, must be dealt with as if there were but one Act creating this offence amongst others, and containing a provision...