The King (Thomas Ferris) v Justices of Londonderry

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 12 June 1903
• Date: 12 June 1903
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

THE KING (THOMAS FERRIS)

and

JUSTICES OF LONDONDERRY

K. B. Div

Board of Guardians — Right to prosecute man for neglecting to maintain his wife — Corporation — Common informer — Justices — 10 & 11 Vict. c. 84, section 2.

Guardians of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch v. FranklinELR 3 C. P. D. 377.

Weaver's Company v. ForrestENR 2 Str. 1241.

VOL. II.] KING'S BENCH DIVISION. 747 THE KING (THOMAS FERRIS) v. JUSTICES OF K. B. Div. LONDONDERRY (1). 1903. June 12. _Board of Guardians—Right to prosecute man for neglecting to maintain his wife—Corporation—Common informer—Justices-10 4 11 Viet. c. 84, section 2. A Board of Guardians (which is a body corporate) prosecuted F. at Petty Sessions for wilfully neglecting to maintain his wife, so that she became destitute, and was relieved in their workhouse. F. was convicted : Held, without deciding whether or not a criminal prosecution could be instituted by a corporation as common informers, that the conviction should be upheld, since the Guardians were in the present case not common informers, but parties aggrieved. CERTIORARI. The prosecutor was charged under 10 & 11 Viet. c. 84, s. 2, before the Justices at Petty Sessions, on a summons in which the Guardians of the Poor of Limavady Union were complainants, with having wilfully neglected to maintain his wife, so that she became destitute, and was relieved in the Limavady Workhouse ; and was convicted and ordered to be imprisoned for fourteen days with hard labour. The prosecutor having obtained a conÂditional order for a writ of certiorari to remove and quash the conviction on the ground (inter alia) (2) that the Guardians, being a corporate body, could not act as complainants in the matter of the complaint, which should have been made by a common inÂformer, now applied to make the order absolute, notwithstanding cause shown. Homer (with him Henry, S. for the prosecutor :— A corporation cannot sue as a common informer unless ex (1) Before PALLES, C.B., and ANDREWS, BARTON, and WRIGHT, JJ. (2) Another ground relied on was that the prosecutor's wife was not, on the facts proved, a destitute poor person within the meaning of the Aet ; but -the case is not reported on this point.—REP.] 748 THE IRISH REPORTS. [1903. K. 11. Div. pressly authorised by...