In the Irish Courts
| Date | 01 October 1946 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834601000408 |
| Published date | 01 October 1946 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Irish Courts
SUPREME
COURT
OF
EIRE
DEFENDANT'S COSTS
IN
CRIMINAl. CASES
The People (A.-G.) v. Harte
"THERE
is a growing feeling among certain portions of
the
community," said Murnaghan
J.
in The People
(A.-G.) u. Harte (1946,
l.R.
110),
"that
an
accused person
who has been acquitted upon
the
trial of
an
indictment
should be paid
the
costs of his defence,
and
some also
contend
that
he should be indemnified
by
amoney
payment
where he has suffered loss
by
being
kept
in custody or
otherwise."
The
common law rule whereby no court can
compel
the
Crown or
State
to
pay
the
costs of a successful
defendant in criminal proceedings has been modified in
Eire
in two ways.
In
the
first place,
by
section 34 of
the
Courts of Justice Act, 1924,
the
Court of Criminal Appeal
may
make
"any
order as to costs as
may
be necessary for
the
purpose of doing justice in
the
case before
the
court"
;
and
by
section 5 of
the
Courts of
Justice
Act, 1928, where
that
court orders are-trial,
it
must
order
the
payment
by
the
prosecution of
the
costs of
the
appeal
and
of
the
re-
trial (but not, be
it
noted, of
the
original trial), unless
the
necessity for
the
re-trial has been caused or contributed
to
by
the
defence. The question raised in Harte's case (supra)
was whether
the
costs awarded against
the
prosecution
may
include
not
only those of
the
appeal,
but
also those
of
the
original trial.
In
that
case, upon
the
respondent's
conviction of receiving being quashed,
the
Court of Criminal
Appeal declared him
to
be
"entitled
to his costs of this
appeal
and
the
costs necessarily
and
properly incurred
of his trial in
the
Circuit Court."
In
the
Supreme Court,
the
Attorney-General argued
that
the
words
"the
case
before
the
court" (in section 34 of
the
Act
of 1924) mean
the
contentions made before
the
court
and
therefore limit
the
award of costs
to
the
appeal only.
But
the
Court held
2113
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