Recent Judicial Decisions
| Date | 01 October 1953 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5302600402 |
| Published date | 01 October 1953 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
RECENT
JUDICIAL
DECISIONS 247
his late twenties or early thirties,
and
prospect of a career in
another
uniformed service like the Police is attractive to a few only of the
whole. In the spate
of
official leaflets and propaganda it is inevitable
that
police recruiting leaflets
and
other literature are swamped by
those of other vocations
and
services.
The lesson mainly to be learned from the experience of improved
recruiting for most police forces which followed the pay award in
August, 1951, is
that
the conditions of police service, including pay,
should constantly be under review, and
that
machinery for bringing
about
revision
and
reform should be capable
of
speedy decision.
In recent months some of the largest forces, serving industrial areas
and the densely populated cities most vulnerable to crime
and
dis-
orderly elements, have met with further set back in recruiting, despite
energetic and imaginative publicity and propaganda. Depleted police
forces are not a
matter
for lethargy, and the question calls for renewed
effort to get on
top
of what for too long a time has been an intractable
problem.
We are asked to announce
that
the Special Investigation Branch
Association (formerly S.l. B. (Middle East) Association) is open to
all past
and
present members of the S.l. B. Application should be
made to the Hon. Sec., Mr. E. Read, 25 Whitehall Road,
Thornton
Heath, Surrey.
Recent
Judicial
Decisions
EXAMINING
MAGISTRATES:
No
POWER
TO STATE A
CASE
TO
HIGH
COURT
Card v. Salmon
Where a person charged with an offence which is triable summarily
or on indictment has elected to go for trial by jury, the duty
of
the
justices, under section 17 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879,
is to treat the offence as an indictable one
and
accordingly to sit
as examining magistrates; as such they have no power to state a
case for the consideration
of
the High
Court
on appeal by way
of
case stated. This proposition was laid down by the High
Court
in
Card v. Salmon (1953 2 W.L.R. 301), in which case the solicitor for
the defendant had persuaded the examining magistrates to state a
case.
A case can only be stated by justices who have power to hear and
determine a case,
that
is to say, to try the case, or by
quarter
sessions
if they have a case on appeal which they have power to try, not by
248
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
jury,
but as
quarter
sessions.
The
reason is clear.
If
amagistrates'
court
is trying a case, it may be
confronted
with some alleged
point
of
law, sometimes a
good
one
and
very often a
bad
one. At any
rate, it is
submitted
to the
court
and
they
want
to know whether it
is in accordance with law. They do not, however, come to
any
decision
when they are sitting as examining magistrates; they only
come
to a
conclusion whether or not a prima facie case has been made
out
to
send for trial. They have power to state a case when they are sitting
as a court of
summary
jurisdiction because their decisicn is conclusive,
subject to appeal,
and
they
are
entitled to ask the Divisional
Court
of
the High
Court
whether or
not
their decision is in accordance
with law.
The
stating
of
a case, like any
other
form
of
appeal, is
entirely a
matter
arising by statute,
and
once justices deal with the
case as one
that
has to go for trial, they are sitting
under
the Indictable
Offences Act, 1848,
and
not
under
the
Summary
Jurisdiction Act, 1879.
COMMON
PROSTITUTE:
No
OFFENCE
COMMITTED
IN
PARKED
CAR
Carnill v. Edwards
Aprostitute who behaves in an indecent
manner
in a
motor-car
parked
in a public highway is
not
"wandering
in the public streets
or public highways"
and
accordingly does
not
commit
an offence
under section 3
of
the Vagrancy Act, 1824. This is the
short
effect
of
the decision in Carnill v. Edwards (1953 I W.L.R. 290).
Four
informations were preferred against two women
and
aman.
The women were
common
prostitutes
and
on the evening on which
the offences were alleged to have been committed they got
into
the
man's
car
in a street in the centre
of
a city
and
were driven by him
to a
road
in the suburbs.
The
man parked his
car
on waste land
about
six yards from this road. Acts
of
indecency
took
place in
the
car, but were
not
observable except by a person who shone atorch
on to the car, as did the police officer.
The
women were charged
under section 3
of
the Act
and
the man with aiding
and
abetting them
in the offences which were alleged to have been committed in this
road
in the suburbs.
The
High
Court
held
that
no offences were
committed as it could not be said
that
if a woman accepts an invita-
tion
and
gets into amotor-car, when they get to their destination
the
woman
is wandering in the street. She is
not
wandering in the
street; she is sitting in the car.
It
might be a very
good
thing if it were
made
an offence for a
woman
to get
into
a
motor-car
and
commit
acts
of
indecency,
that
is, if she
were a
common
prostitute.
Of
course, if an indecent act is com-
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