Queen v. Caird

Subject_1 Tax Subject_2 Horse Duty Subject_3 16 and 17 Vict., c. 88, s. 15 Subject_4 Special Case. Facts: 1. Held incompetent to remit a case to the Quarter Sessions for re-statement. 2. Circumstances in which held that a contravention of 16 and 17 Vict., c. 88, s. 15, had been incurred.

This is an appeal by James Caired, innkeeper, Cullen, Banffshire, from a deliverance of the Quarter Sessions of that country, by which, affirming a judgment of the Petty Sessions held at Cullen on the 2d of March 1866, he was convicted of a contravention of the 15th section of the Act 16 and 17 Vict., c. 88. The following case was stated by the Quarter Sessions for the opinion and direction of the Court of Exchequer:—

The defendant appealed to the Quarter Sessions held at Banff on the 1st day of May 1866. When the appeal was taken up on that day, the defendant appeared, and having become aware that four of the Justices who had sat on the case at the Petty Sessions were going to take part in the hearing and decision of the appeal, he objected to their right to do so, and maintained that it was incompetent for them to review their own judgment; Page: 167 ↓

The Justices at Quarter Sessions, by a majority of one, dismissed the appeal, but unanimously recommended the Commissioners of Inland Revenue to further mitigate the penalty to the sum of five pounds.

Whereupon the defendant craved, in terms of the Act 7th and 8th Geo. IV., cap. 53, sec. 84, that the Justices should state the facts of the case for the opinion of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, and the case, under reference to the foregoing statement, is as follows:—