Griffin against Ellis and Gough
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 03 February 1840 |
| Date | 03 February 1840 |
| Court | Court of the Queen's Bench |
English Reports Citation: 113 E.R. 595
IN THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
S. C. 3 P. & D. 398; 9 L. J. Q. B. 127; 4 Jur. 409.
UAD.ftE.74S. GRIFFIN V. ELLIS 595 [743] griffin against ellis and gough. Monday, February 3, 1840. By a declaration in prohibition to an Ecclesiastical Court in the matter of a church rate, plaintiff set forth matter which, as he contended, shewed the rate to be void, as being retrospective and irregularly made ; he also set forth the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Court, which consisted of a libel, a defensive allegation, and a responsive allegation, the last being received after objection by the now plaintiff in prohibition ; and on these, as the plaintiff contended, the matter of objection appeared to be admitted in fact. Held, that on plaintiff's shewing, no case was raised for a prohibition at this stage of the proceedings. [S. C. 3 P. & D. 398 ; 9 L. J. Q. B. 127 ; 4 Jur. 409.] Prohibition. The declaration stated that, on divers days between 17th October 1833 and 1st Apr.il 1834, defendants, being the churchwardens of the parish of Portsea ttere, to wit on the said 16th day of June A.D. 1838, at," &c., "upon being so requested as aforesaid, did unlawfully and contemptuously wholly refuse to give to the said G. B., being then and there such registrar as aforesaid, information according," &c., " of the said several particulars by the same Act," &c., " touching the birth of the said child, or of any of the said particulars: and that the said B. P. did not nor would, when he was so requested as aforesaid, or at any other time within the said forty-two days next after the day of the birth of the said child, which elapsed long before the taking of this inquisition, or at any other time before or since, give the said information, or any part thereof, according to the best of his knowledge and belief, or otherwise howsoever, to the said G. B., so being such registrar as aforesaid, or to any other person, and always thereafter unlawfully and contemptuously wholly refused and neglected so to do, to wit at the parish," &c. "And the jurors," &c., "that neither the mother of the said child, or any other person, ever did give the said information or any part thereof to the said G. B., or to any other person. In contempt," &o., "against the form," &c. The second count stated the child to have been " lately and within forty two days then next preceding, and after the said last day of June, a.d. 1837, to wit on the 30th day of May A.D. 1838, born," &c. (as in the first [740] count): it stated that B. P. was " duly and according to the provisions of the said Act of Parliament requested by the said G. B., then and before," &c. (as in the first count), to give information, " according to the provisions of the said Act of Parliament, of the several particulars by the said Act of Parliament required to be known and registered touching the birth of the said child in this count mentioned ; that is to say, when such child was born ; the name of such child, if any; the sex of such child ; the name and surname of the father of such child : the name and maiden surname of the mother of auch child ; and the rank and profession of the father of such child." The intent laid was " to pravent the due registration of the birth last aforesaid, and to prevent the due execution of the law thereto relating." The defendant was charged to have refused, " with force and arms," to give information, &c., and to have been "often duly requested within the said last mentioned forty-two days ao to do." The count negatived that the mother or any other person gave information, " in any manner whatsoever, to the said G. B. In contempt," &c. Third count. "That heretofore, and after the said last day of June a.d. 1837, and before and at the time of the birth of the child in this count after mentioned, to wit on the 16th day of June A.D. 1838, at the parish," &c., "the said G. B. was and thenceforth hitherto bath been, and still is, the registrar, according to the provisions of an Act," &c., " of births and deaths within a certain district in the county aforesaid then, and during all the time last aforesaid, called by a distinct name, to wit the St. Peter's District, and then, and during all the time last aforesaid, and still, being a registrar's district, to wit a temporary district within the meaning and provisions of the same Act of Parliament, and the same district having been, before the said time of the birth last aforesaid, duly formed and made into a district, to wit a temporary district, according to the provisions of the same Act of Parliament. And the jurors," &c. " that, on the 16th day of June A.D. 1838, to wit at the parish," &c., " the said B. P. was the father of a child born in England, and within the said district in this count mentioned, then, to wit at the time of such birth, and always thereafter, being such a 596 GRIFFIN V. ELLIS 11 AD.ftE.744. in Hampshire, of their own accord, but without the concurrence of the parishioners, incurred debts amounting, &c,, to wit 1501., in expenses alleged by them to be incident to the celebration of public worship, &c., in the parish : that, on the day last mentioned, they were elected churchwardens for the ensuing year: that, on divers days between that day and 29th October 1834, of their own, &c., without, &c., they incurred another debt, to wit 1001. (described as before): that, on the day last mentioned, the vicar and churchwardens, with divers parishioners and inhabitants, assembled in vestry in the pariah church, the vicar being chairman ; and it was proposed that " a rate should be made for the purpose, among others, of discharging the said debts ;" that an amendment was moved and seconded, to the effect that the vestry should adjourn to 22d October 1835, and was declared to be carried on a shew of hands, whereupon a poll was demanded : that, although a proposition was duly moved and seconded for the purpose of regulating the time and place of taking the poll, the vicar refused to put it from the chair," " and then of his own mere authority, and without the sanction or consent of the said vestry meeting, adjourned the said meeting of the said vestry to another and a different place, to wit to the vestry-room [744] of the said parish," to be held on days and hours by him then named, without the consent of the vestry : that divers, to wit one hundred, persons were, to wit on the days and times aforesaid, admitted by the vicar to vote at the poll, who had not been present at the vestry meeting : that plaintiff, at the time of the vestry meeting, was and still is an inhabitant and occupier in the parish ; nevertheless defendants, contriving, &c. the plaintiff, registrar's district as last aforesaid, to wit in a certain house in the pariah aforesaid, of which said house the said B. P. was then and there, and during all the time last aforesaid, the occupier ; and which said child was born after the said last day of June a.d. 1837, to wit on the 16th day of June A.D. 1838. And the jurors," &c. " that the said B. P., so being such father as last aforesaid, after the birth of such child as last aforesaid, and within forty-two days next after the day of such birth as last aforesaid, and at and in a reasonable time in that behalf, to wit on the said 16th day of June in the year last aforesaid, to wit at the pariah," &c., " and within the district in this count mentioned, was duly, and according to the provisions of the same Act of Parliament, requested by the said G. B., so then and there being such registrar as in this count mentioned, to give to the said G. B., so then and there being such registrar as in this count mentioned, according to the best of the knowledge and belief [741] of him the said B. P., information of the several...
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