The appellant died pending his appeal being heard and his widow wished to pursue a challenge to the order for payment of prosecution costs.
Held: The powers of the court were derived from statute and did not permit such a course.
Widgery LJ said: ‘We take it to be a general principle that whenever a party to proceedings dies, the proceedings must abate, unless his personal representatives both have an interest in the subject matter and can by virtue of the express terms of a statute (or from rules of court made by virtue of jurisdiction given by a statute) take the appropriate steps to have themselves substituted for the deceased as a party to the proceedings.’
Judges:
Widgery LJ
Citations:
(1968) 52 Cr App R 654
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – Regina v Kearley (Dec, by his Agent Brian Sharman) (Number 2) HL 21-Jul-1994
An appeal lapses with the death of the appellant even though others may be affected. A statutory right of appeal is a personal right and does not survive the applicant.
Rights of appeal die with appellant even after remission by House of Lords. . .
Cited – Turk (Deceased) v Regina CACD 6-Apr-2017
Defendant’s death stops trial immediately
At his trial for serious sexual offences, the jury passed a note to the judge saying that they had reached unanimous verdicts on several counts. The judge did not pass the note to counsel, but instead asked the jury to retire overnight to try again . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.581946