The King (Kingston and Others) v Justices of County Cork

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 31 October 1910
• Date: 31 October 1910
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

The King (Kingston and Others)

and

Justices of County Cork (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.

1910.

Justices — Bias — Certiorari.

Justices, in spite of objection, adjudicated on a charge of assault brought by the claimant to an evicted farm against the purchaser of it and two of his servants, the former of whom had been boycotted immediately after a meeting of the local branch of the United Irish League had been held, which meeting had been attended by the Justices in their capacity as members of the League. The defendants were convicted. There was evidence that the boycott was a result of the meeting in question.

Held, that under the circumstances of the case, there was a real likelihood of bias on the part of the Justices, and that they were disqualified from adjudicating on the charge in question.

Certiorari.

The prosecutors herein, Richard Kingston, Jeremiah Collins, and Minnie Lorgan, were defendants in a summons issued against them on the 13th May, 1910, on the complaint of Denis Murphy, charging them with having assaulted the complainant at Curraclough, county Cork, on the 6th May

On the 16th June, a summons was issued by Kingston against Murphy for trespassing on Kingston's farm at Curraclough on the 22nd April and the 6th May, and also for besetting the said farm (on which Kingston resided) during the previous three months with a view to compel Kingston to abstain from keeping possession of it. On the same date Minnie Lorgan also issued a summons against Murphy, charging him with threatening her and using abusive language to her at Curraclough on the 6th May, and calling on him to show cause why he should not be bound over to keep the peace.

The cases were all heard together at Shandangan Petty

Sessions, on the 21st June, by Messrs. O'Hara, R.M., T. J. Twomey, Edward Neville, and John Fitzgerald. After hearing evidence, the magistrates, by a majority, Mr. O'Hara dissenting, convicted Kingston, Collins, and Minnie Lorgan on the charge of assaulting Murphy, and imposed fines of 5s. with costs on Kingston and Collins, and fined Minnie Lorgan 10s. with costs. Murphy was convicted on the charges of trespass and fined 6d. for each offence; the charge against him of besetting Kingston's farm was dismissed without prejudice, and the charge brought by Minnie Lorgan was dismissed on the merits.

On the 7th July the prosecutors obtained a conditional order for a writ of certiorari to quash the convictions against them on the grounds that two magistrates E. Neville and J. Fitzgerald, who heard and determined the case, were interested in the prosecution and adjudication, and were biassed, hostile, partial, and prejudiced against the prosecutors.

The affidavit made by the prosecutor Kingston for the purpose of obtaining the said conditional order contained the following statements:—

That in 1882 Murphy's father was evicted from his farm at Curraclough, which was let to the deponent's father in 1883. That the deponent became entitled to the said farm in the same year under his father's will, and that it had been for the past three vested in him under the provisions of the Irish Land Purchase Acts. That the deponent resided on the said farm, and that Collins and Minnie Lorgan were in his employment.

That Murphy's father had been dead for some years, and that on Murphy returning from America, where he had been for some years, he, in February, 1910, went to reside with a relative who lived on a farm adjoining the deponent's. That, on meeting the deponent shortly...