The King (M'Ardle) v The Chairman and Justices of County Louth

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 28 February 1903
• Date: 28 February 1903
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

The King (M'Ardle)

and

The Chairman and Justices of Co. Louth (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.

Justices — Summary jurisdiction — Conviction — Appeal to Quarter Sessions — Affirmance of order wrongly certified — One conviction on summons charging several offences — Power of King's Bench Division to amend order of Quarter Sessions.

M., a publican, was charged at Petty Sessions on a summons, alleging five distinct offences under the Licensing Acts, on one of which he was convicted and fined, the other four charges being dismissed without prejudice. The order was properly entered in the Petty Sessions book. M. appealed to the Quarter Sessions. The certificate of the order of the Petty Sessions (Form H) recited the several charges, and stated that the defendant was convicted and fined, but contained no statement as to the charge on which he was convicted, or as to the other charges having been dismissed. The order as so certified was affirmed by the Quarter Sessions:—

Held, that the order so affirmed was bad on its face, as not showing on which charge the defendant was convicted; that, even if the King's Bench Division had power to amend the error in the order of Quarter Sessions, the present was not a case for the exercise of such power, and that therefore the order of the Quarter Sessions affirming the conviction must be quashed.

Certiorari

The prosecutor, a licensed publican, was charged at Petty Sessions on a summons alleging five separate offences against the Licensing Acts, viz.: (1), unlawfully selling intoxicating liquor at a time prohibited by law; (2), unlawfully exposing for sale intoxicating liquors at a time prohibited by law; (3), unlawfully opening his licensed premises for sale of intoxicating liquors at a time prohibited by law; (4), unlawfully keeping open his licensed premises for sale of intoxicating liquors at a time prohibited by law; (5), unlawfully allowing intoxicating liquors to be sold on his licensed premises at a time prohibited by law. The charges were heard by the Justices at Petty Sessions, and an order was made and duly entered in the order book and signed by the presiding

Justice dismissing without prejudice charges 1, 2, 3, and 5; and in respect of charge 4 an order was made—“Defendant convicted, and fined in the sum of £5 and 1s. costs, and the conviction to be indorsed on the license, and in default of payment defendant to be imprisoned in Dundalk gaol for seven days unless same be sooner paid.” The defendant appealed to the Quarter Sessions. The certificate of the order at Petty Sessions, contained in the form of appeal delivered to the defendant, Form H in the schedule to the Petty Sessions Act, 1851, recited the five charges and stated the order appealed from, “defendant convicted and fined, &c.,” but omitted to state that the...