High Court in Northern Ireland
| Published date | 01 August 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838404800306 |
| Date | 01 August 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
HIGH
COURT
IN
NORTHERN
IRELAND
WHERE
IS
CRIMINAl.
INJURY
CAUSED?
Wells v. Secretary
of
State
An application for compensation in
Northern
Ireland is limited to
the
case where
"a
person sustains acriminal injury in
Northern
Ireland",
in those cases where
the
injury is to
the
person. Where,
however,
the
claim is in respect of
damage
to
property,
there
is no
such express reference. in
the
Order
of 1977 which governs these
matters, to
Northern
Ireland as the place in which the
damage
must
be done. In Wells v. Secretary
of
State [1981] N.J. 233, it was
nonetheless held that
"it
may be taken for granted that its territorial
application is confined
thereto".
The
question in
that
case was,
therefore,
whether
the
damage
could, in
the
circumstances, be said
to have
been
done
in
Northern
Ireland.
Four
youths
had
been
given
a lift by a motorist in
Northern
Ireland. They severely assaulted him
and drove
off
in his
car
without his consent.
Three
of
them
drove it
over
the
border
into
Eire, where,
"in
pursuit of a chip
van",
they
crashed it and did
£2,500
worth of damage.
Compensation
was
refused by
the
Secretary
of
State, as the
damage
had
not
been
done
in
Northern
Ireland,
but
this decision was
overturned
by
the
Recorder.
On appeal to
the
High
Court,
it was submitted
that
the
damage
must be
deemed
to have
been
done
in
Northern
Ireland, for the
hijacking of the
car
in Belfast was the beginning of a continuous
unlawful act, of which the eventual crash from which the
damage
flowed was
but
the
culmination. Counsel for
the
Secretary of State
conceded that,
had
the crash occurred in
Northern
Ireland,
compensation would have
been
payable;
but
the
court
was of
the
opinion
that
this concession was ambiguous.
If
the
crash
had
occurred in
another
county in
Northern
Ireland, the
damage
would
have been unlawful,
but
not
necessarily wanton, for
there
was no
evidence
that
the
driver had deliberately crashed the car
or
that he
was indifferent as to what
happened
to it. In any case, the
damage
in
282
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