Statutory Interpretaton Cases (now included in the main stack for this section) Flashcards
Whitely V Chappel W17
The defendant was charged with voting under someone else’s name in an election. The person he voted under was dead.
He was not found guilty because the wording of the statute referred to people who were ‘entitled to vote’ dead people are not entitled to vote.
LNER V Berriman W17
A statute made employers liable for widow’s of workers killed ‘repairing or relaying’ the line. A railway worker was killed whilst oiling the railway lines.
He was maintaining not repairing the lines so his wife was not entitled to compensation.
Smith V Hughes W17
6 prostitutes were charged with ‘soliciting in a street or public place.’ They claimed they were behind windows and on a balcony and so were not in the street.
The statute was aimed at protecting people in the street from harassment. They could add ‘within view of the street’.
Corkery V Carpenter W17
The defendant was charged with being drunk in charge of a carriage on the highway. He was riding a bicycle. The Mischief was stopping people being a danger on the highway. Parliament overlooked ‘other forms of transport.’
Adler V George W17
The defendant was charged with being in the vicinity of a prohibited place when he broke into an HM Army base. He claimed he was not in the vicinity he was actually inside. The word vicinity was in interpreted to mean ‘in or near to’ and so he was liable.
R V Allen W17
The defendant was charged with bigamy. It was an offence to marry while already married to someone else.
He claimed that as he was already married, the second marriage was invalid and so was not a legal marriage.
The judge interpreted the word ‘marry’ as to simply go through with the ceremony and so he was found liable.
Royal College of Nursing V DHSS W17
The Abortion Act 1967 made it legal for doctors to carry out abortions. By 1981 it was common for nurses to carry out abortions, supervised by doctors. The legality of this was challenged.
Held: the purpose of this act was to offer safe abortions so those carried out by nurses were within the aim of the act.
Jones V Tower Boot W17
The Race Relations Act made a company liable for racial abuse carried out by workers in the course of their employment. Course of employment means the things workers are employed to do.
The purpose of the act was to avoid discrimination in the work place, so the company was liable.
