Court of Appeal
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836502900105 |
| Published date | 01 January 1965 |
| Date | 01 January 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court of Appeal
CRIMINAL
INTENT
AND
D.P.P.
V.
SMITH
Hardy v. Motor Insurers' Bureau
INthis civil case members of the
Court
of Appeal had
occasion to explain the decision and dicta in D.P.P. v. Smith
(1961
A.C.
290),
one of the members of the Court,
Lord
Denning, M.R., having been aparty to the House of
Lords
decision in Smith's case.
Great
interest attaches, or should
attach, to his observations made in his
judgment
in Hardy v.
Motor Insurers' Bureau (1964, 3
W.L.R.
433). Pearson,
L.J.,
also made some illuminating comments. Smith's case has had,
of course, an extremely bad press.
This
JOURNAL
may well be
the only legal periodical which has
not
published strictures
upon
it.
It
is not proposed to join the critics (mainly academic
writers) now.
The
question of criminal intent came up for discussion in
Hardy v. Motor Insurers' Bureau in the following way.
The
plaintiff in
the
action, asecurity officer at a large metal works,
sought to question the driver of a van bearing astolen road
fund licence by stopping the van in the road and asking the
driver, who was a worker in the factory, to pull in. While the
security officer was holding on to the open van door with his
head inside, the driver drove off at speed, dragging
him
along
the
road for some distance
and
causing bodily harm.
The
driver was prosecuted and pleaded guilty to charges of
larceny and driving amotor vehicle while uninsured; he
pleaded
not
guilty,
but
was convicted, on the further charge
of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on the plaintiff,
contrary to s.
20
of
the
Offences against the Person Act, 1861,
and
was fined.
The
plaintiff then sought to recover damages
for his injuries,
but
as the driver was
not
insured, the plaintiff
sought to recover from the defendants, the Motor Insurers'
Bureau.
The
bureau denied liability on the ground
that
liability for a criminal act was not a liability which the Acts
36
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