Recent Judicial Decisions
| Published date | 01 January 1937 |
| Date | 01 January 1937 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3701000102 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Recent
Judicial
Decisions
Ledwith v. Roberts
(Times Law Reports, Vol. 53,
No.1,
October, 1936)
FROM
time to time, for many years, His Majesty's Judges
and others have thrown out opinions to the effect that
athorough overhaul of the Vagrancy Laws, and particularly
the Vagrancy Act of
1824,
is long overdue.
Nothing has been done. Perhaps something may now
be done following on the judgment of the Court of Appeal
in the case of Ledwith v. Roberts, which is reported in Vol. 53
of The Times Law Reports on page
21.
It
is interesting that a most important judgment on the
troublesome question of
'suspected
persons'
should have
been decided in the Court of Appeal following on a civil
action, the result of which depended upon whether constables,
in certain circumstances, had the right of arrest.
The
appeal was from a judgment of the presiding Judge
of the Liverpool Court of Passage awarding two plaintiffs
£15 damages each for false imprisonment. No evidence
was called, the case being argued on agreed facts, the defen-
dants contending that the particulars which they had given
amounted to a justification in law of the arrest and detention
of the plaintiffs.
The
particulars were as follows
:-
"
...
(1)
The
plaintiff Crothers was seen standing in the
said telephone kiosk in which there was no light. He was
not telephoning, and the plaintiff Ledwith was loitering outside
apparently keeping watch and screening the plaintiff Crothers
in the said kiosk from passers-by. (2)
The
plaintiff Crothers
remained inside the said kiosk for a period of about
25
minutes
8
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