The court was asked whether a private person could prosecute a butcher for exposing rotten meat for sale.
Held: Provided the purpose of the offence was to protect the public, any person could bring a prosecution. Lord Alverstone CJ said: ‘Can a private person institute proceedings under section 47, sub-s.2? Apart from express provisions limiting the right, I should have thought the point was too clear for argument . . Having regard to the object of the statute, the protection of the public against the offering of diseased meat for sale, I think that if it had been intended to limit the right to take proceedings for the recovery of penalties to a limited class of persons, such as medical officers and sanitary inspectors, words would have been introduced into the section taking away from private persons the right to lay informations under the section.’
Judges:
Lord Alverstone CJ
Citations:
[1906] 1 KB 709
Statutes:
Public Health (London) Act 1891 47(2)
Cited by:
Cited – Ewing, Regina (on the Application of) v Davis Admn 2-Jul-2007
The court considered whether the District Judge had been correct to refuse to issue summonses for private prosecutions where there was a suggestion that only a private dispute at stake.
Held: It ‘never was any requirement that a private . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.267546