During the trial, the judge, Mr Justice Fraser had died and the case had been continued by Mr Justice Acton ‘at the urgent request of the parties’ with earlier witnesses not being recalled but the new judge having recourse to the transcripts.
Held: Scrutton LJ said: ‘I think it is a precedent which should not be followed in future. I doubt whether a judge has any jurisdiction to continue the hearing of a case in which witnesses have been called in court in the course of the trial before the jury and another judge, it not being a case of evidence being taken on commission or before an examiner.’
Scrutton LJ
[1928] 1 KB 776
England and Wales
Cited by:
Distinguished – The Forest Lake 1968
The presiding judge sitting with two elder brethren of Trinity House, was compelled to retire due to ill health in the middle of the case. The president Sir Jocelyn Simon ordered, in the circumstances, that the action be heard de novo and Mr Justice . .
Distinguished – Hitch, Regina (on the Application of) v Commissioners for the Special Purposes of the Income Tax Acts Admn 4-Mar-2005
Before the appeal had been concluded under section 45(3), one of the two commissioners was incapacitated. The taxpayer appealed the refusal of a de novo hearing and the replacement of the tax commissioner.
Held: The reconstitution of the panel . .
Distinguished – In re British Reinforced Concrete Engineering Co Ltd 1929
Practice on incapacity of the judge during a trial. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Personal Injury, Litigation Practice
Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.223884
