Court of Criminal, Appeal
| Date | 01 January 1949 |
| Published date | 01 January 1949 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834901300103 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court of Criminal Appeal
JOINDER
OF
COUNTS:
CHARGES
IN
RESPECT
OF
DIFFERENT
TRANSACTIONS
R. v. Clayton-Wright
By
virtue
of section 4 of
the
Indictments Act, 1915
there
is no obstacle to
the
joining of charges of felonies
and
misdemeanours in
the
same indictment provided
the
offences are such as
may
be otherwise properly joined.
Among
the
rules which appear in schedule 1 to
the
Act is
the
following, rule 3 :
Charges for
any
offences, whether felonies or mis-
demeanours,
may
be joined in
the
same indictment
if
those charges are founded on
the
same facts, or form
or are a
part
of a series of offences of
the
same or a
similar character.
In
R. v. Clayton-Wright (1948, 2
All
E.R.
763)
the
Court
(Lord Goddard, C.J., Jones
and
Byrne
JJ.)
gave a useful
decision on
the
mode of application of this rille.
The
appellant was convicted on an indictment con-
taining four counts. The first charged him
with
arson
contrary to section 42 of
the
Malicious Damage Act, 1861,
in
that
he unlawfully
and
maliciously
set
fire to a vessel.
The
second count charged
him
with arson
with
intent,
contrary
to section 43 of
the
Act,
the
particulars being
that
on
the
same
day
and
at
the
same place he unlawfully
and
maliciously
set
fire to
the
vessel
with
intent
thereby to
prejudice
the
members of
the
Institute
of London Under-
writers who
had
underwritten apolicy of insurance on
the
vessel.
Both
of these offences are felonies.
In
the
third
count he was charged with amisdemeanour
by
attempting
to obtain money
by
false pretences,
the
particulars being
that
on
the
same
day
and
at
the
same place
with
intent
to
defraud he
attempted
to obtain from
the
members of
the
Institute
payment
for
the
total
loss of
the
vessel
by
falsely
pretending
it
had
become a
total
loss
by
reason of
an
37
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