By 9 Geo. 4, c. 61, s. 4, licensing justices at special transfer sessions have power to license persons, ‘ intending to keep inns theretofore kept by other persons being about to remove from such inns/’ to sell exciseable liquors by retail. Justices, acting under that section, granted a licence by way of transfer from a person who was not and had not been in occupation of the premises in respect of which he held it, and no exciseable liquors had been sold upon those premises for many years.
Held: that as the justices had disregarded the provisions of the statute giving them jurisdiction, and must have acted upon some considerations altogether outside that statute, they had not heard and determined the matter according to law, and that a mandamus ought to go commanding them so to hear and determine it.
To obtain an order of mandamus, the applicant must show that he has a sufficient interest.
Matters ‘absolutely apart from the matters which by law ought to be taken into consideration’ must be ignored.
Kennedy J. noted the distinction between, on the one hand, disregarding the provisions of a statute and considering matters which ought not to be considered and, on the other hand, what he called ‘a mere misconstruction of an Act of Parliament.’
Kennedy J
[1898] 1 QB 802
Commonlii
England and Wales
Updated: 09 September 2021; Ref: scu.258764
