In the Irish Courts
| Published date | 01 April 1947 |
| Date | 01 April 1947 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834701100206 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Irish Courts
KING'S
BENCH
DIVISION
OF
NORTHERN
IRELAND
STATUS
OF'
ANALYST'
UNDER
FOOD AND DRUGS ACT, 1875
The Minister of Agriculture for Northern Ireland v. Turtle
Is
it
an
indispensable condition precedent to a prose-
cution
by
aprivate purchaser under section 6of
the
Sale of Food
and
Drugs Act, 1875,
that
the
article,
when purchased
in
the
ordinary course of business for
consumption or re-sale,
and
not
for
the
purpose of sub-
mitting
it
to analysis, should be analysed
by
apublic
analyst, whose certificate is
then
to be tendered in evidence?
About
the
correct answer to this question, there is a con-
flict of opinion between
the
English
and
Irish courts : see
O'Connor's
Irish
Justice of the Peace, Vol. 2, p. 466. The
difficulty arises from
the
drafting of paragraph 1of section
20 of
the
Act
of 1875, which enacts
that
"when
the
analyst
having analysed
any
article shall have given his certificate
of
the
result
....
the
person causing
the
analysis
to
be made
may
take
proceedings for
the
recovery of
the
penalty
herein imposed for such offence".
Both
learned
Judges
in The Minister of Agriculture for Northern Ireland v.
Turtle (1946
N.I.
63) blamed
the
"curious wording" of this
"ill-drafted
statute"
for
the
fact
that
"the
Act certainly
does
not
contain
any
clear or explicit provision in regard
to
the
particular
point
which has now arisen for
our
decision.
One is disposed
to
infer
that
the
point
simply did
not
occur
to
the
draftsman" (per Black J.), so
that
it
is impossible
to discover
"the
true
construction of
the
paragraph, which,
parse
it
as one may, exhibits
the
difficulties
that
flow from
loose drafting
rather
than
acomplex
subject-matter'
(per MacDermott J.).
The
'notable difference of judicial opinion' on this
point
began,
not
with
decisions,
but
with
dicta
in
cases
in
which
the
question was whether
the
notification
to
the
seller prescribed
by
section 14 applied to
'private
purchases'
(for consumption or re-sale) as well as to
'test
purchases'
19/5
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