Kolalich v The Director of Public Prosecutions (New South Wales)
[1991] HCATrans 198
~
•
"'
• ~
IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Office of the Registry
Sydney No SllS of 1990 B e t w e e n -
RICHARD KOLALICH
Applicant
and
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC
PROSECUTIONS (NEW SOUTH WALES)
Respondent
Application for special
leave to appeal
MASON CJ
BRENNAN J
DEANE J
GAUDRON J
McHUGH J
| Kolalich | 1 | 7/8/91 |
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
AT CANBERRA ON WEDNESDAY, 7 AUGUST 1991, AT 12.26 PM
Copyright in the High Court of Australia
MR K.G. HORLER, QC: If the Court pleases, I appear for the
applicant/appellant, Mr Kolalich. Appearing with
me, MR S.J. ODGERS. (instructed by O'Connor
Bellamy)
| MR K. MASON, QC, Solicitor-General for New South Wales: | I |
appear with my learned friend, MR w. ROSER, for the
respondent. (instructed by S.E. O'Connor,
Solicitor for Public Prosecutions)
MASON CJ: Yes, Mr Horler.
MR HORLER: | Your Honours, for the assistance, we hope, of the Court in the hearing of this application we |
| have prepared and now hand up an outline of certain | |
| submissions that we rely upon and we have exchanged | |
| those with a similar set with the solicitor. |
MASON CJ: Thank you.
| MR HORLER: | Your Honours, before I come to the brief point or points in this leave application it is necessary | |
| ||
| to the Court of Criminal Appeal was the decision of | ||
| Mr Justice Sully on 13 February 1990. That is to | ||
| be found at pages 6 and following in the appeal | ||
| book. In that regard the present applicant, my client, was successful and obtained a stay order in respect of the ex officio indictment for murder | ||
| which had been found following upon the committal. |
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed
against that decision of Mr Justice Sully and that
matter came on for hearing in New South Wales in
the Court of Criminal Appeal in March and after
reserving for about eight or nine days the court,on Friday, 16 March 1990, gave its decision, one judgment being the judgement of the whole of the
court. The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal is in the appeal book at pages 27 and
following. Application for leave to appeal to this Court was put on by the present applicant's new
solicitor. We are out of time. We need an order
from this Court enlarging the time. The explanation for our delay is to be found in the
affidavit of Mr Bellamy, our instructing solicitor.
That is also in the appeal book and he sets out, in
some detail, the delay not occasioned by him or his
client. And that, Your Honours, is to be found in Mr Bellamy's first affidavit. That begins at
page 49 in the appeal book, that is the affidavit
of Graham Valentine Bellamy sworn 31 October 1990.
| Kolalich | 2 | 7/8/91 |
He sets out, and it might be useful to draw
your attention to it now, in paragraph 2, a
relevant summary of the chronology from the date of
the alleged offence, and in paragraphs 3 through to
6 inclusive, that is pages 50 to 51 of the appeal
book, he describes the course of the matter from
the time he received instructions, and we would ask
for the indulgence to proceed in this application,
although we are out of time, relying upon those
matters set out in those paragraphs of the first of
Mr Bellamy's affidavit. I do not know whether it is opposed and I am afraid I have not raised it
with the Solicitor as to what their attitude is.
| MR MASON: | Our attitude is to oppose the substance of the |
application rather than the time aspect of it.
| MR HORLER: | I will say no more on that aspect unless |
required to do at the moment.
MASON CJ: Yes, you may as well proceed, Mr Horler.
| MR HORLER: | And, Your Honours, while I am dealing with |
Mr Bellamy's affidavit, that is as convenient a
place to take the Court, briefly, and I hope
succinctly, to certain relevant matters of
chronology. Could I ask Your Honours please to be
good enough to look at Mr Bellamy's first
affidavit, that is the affidavit of 31 October 1990
beginning at page 49 in the appeal book and in
paragraph 2 with successive Roman numerals he sets
out from 29 September through until the Court of
Appeal hearing, certain relevant dates. I will not go to them or say anything in amplification unless
I am asked to. But there is the span of dates up
until the Court of Criminal Appeal decision of 8
and 16 March 1990. That is found on page 50 at
page 2 of that affidavit.
Your Honours, you will see from the appeal papers and the appeal book that the present
applicant, Mr Kolalich, was originally charged and came before the magistrate at Glebe in the
committal proceedings over some four days on a
charge of murder.
He did not give evidence. He was represented
by_counsel and during the course of it we say, and
indeed the magistrate so held, that in respect of
an incident which had occurred in licensed premises
in King Street, Newtown, being an inner Sydney
suburb, at about 3.30 one morning there was a
violent incident on any view of it which caused the
death of the deceased.Now, sufficient to say that during committal counsel and solicitor then appearing ior the
| Kolalich | 3 | 7/8/91 |
defendant in committal, made out what we say was a
case that brought Mr Kolalich's committal and his
defence within section 23 of the Crimes Act in NewSouth Wales which provides for the statutory defence of provocation.
Now, I should say that the defence of provocation in New South Wales under the Crimes Act
is available only in charges of murder, not
otherwise in respect of aggravated assaults. There
is much criticism from the judgment of the court
charging that both the magistrate, and indeed
Mr Justice Sully when he made the order granting
the stay, seemed to have ignored that fact.
What we say, and this is really the nub of the
submissions that bring us here, is that when the
magistrate set about the functions which he was
charged with under the Justices Act in New South
Wales, and in particular section 41(2) and
section 41(6), that it was entirely appropriate for
him to consider whether it be at 41(2) which in the
shorthand is the point of time when the no case
submission is made, and/or at 41(6), it was
entirely appropriate for the magistrate at
committal to consider the potential defence of
provocation given the function that he was charged
with.
Indeed, we would say in further support of
that, that had he not considered the potential
defence of provocation as provided for in murder
charges under section 23 of the Crimes Act he would
have been failing in his duty.
I stop myself there to go ahead jumping over
for the moment the judgment of Mr Justice Sully
when he granted my client the stay application.
True it is, and it is trite law, that the question
of what may amount to provocation is ultimately a jury question. We have not come here to argue to
the contrary. But the fact that in the jury trial if the charge was still murder that it was a jury
question, subject to the directions given by the
trial judge, does not mean that it was
inappropriate for the magistrate at committal to
direct his mind to that defence, because at 41(6)
and arguably at 41(2) of the Justices Act a defence
that would be available for consideration by the
hypothetical jury acting reasonably and charged as
to legal principles, was a matter that the
magistrate was entitled, and further, must
consider.
The fact that ultimately at the trial, if it
got that far, it would be a jury question did not
prevent the magistrate from so considering that
| Kolalich | 4 | 7/8/91 |
aspect made out by the defendant's counsel in his
cross-examination and the fact that the magistrate
adopted that method of reasoning has attracted much
criticism, as you will see throughout the judgment
of the Court of Criminal Appeal in March of 1990.
It is convenient for me to take you briefly, if I
may, to some aspects where, we say, there are
fallacies in the reasoning.
BRENNAN J: | Can I just ask you what is the function of the magistrate under 41(2) and (6), and I draw your |
| attention particularly to the words "an indictable | |
| offence"? | |
| MR HORLER: | Yes. |
| BRENNAN J: | I took your argument to be that a magistrate has |
to consider elements of the offence charged before
him.
| MR HORLER: | Yes. |
BRENNAN J: But with a view to determining what?
MR HORLER: Whether or not there is material evidence
available capable of satisfying the jury of the
commission of an indictable offence. Now, that
has, and continues to create difficulties. In
answer to what I apprehend Your Honour's question
to me, is this: a magistrate cannot be required,
and after the event cannot be criticized in a forum
such as this, because he has not specified the
indictable offence which he says there is a
sufficiency of evidence to send the defendant
forward.
What happened in this case - and all you have
are the two pages of the magistrate's decision
at 41(2) - is that the magistrate at committal,
having to focus on - it was not a seminar after
all - the possible indictable charges committed him for trial on a charge of manslaughter. Now, to answer Your Honour's question completely, he did
not have to do that. He could have said, "I find there is sufficient evidence capable of satisfying
a jury that you have committed an indictable
offence". However, he did, as indeed do the
majority, may I say, but not all of the magistrates
in New South Wales, commit him in respect of a
particular nominated indictable matter, namely
manslaughter, taking into account, as we say he was
entitled to and must, the available defence of
provocation, a partial defence, that reduces murder
from manslaughter, but in summary, in answer to
that question, Your Honour, he committed him on
manslaughter under the Justices Act 41(2)
| Kolalich | 7/8/91 |
and (6) - more particularly (6) - he did not have
to nominate a particular indictment.
| BRENNAN J: | So the statutory function is to commit for |
trial?
| MR HORLER: | Yes. |
| BRENNAN J: | And then he may add, if he wishes, "on a charge |
of"?
| MR HORLER: | Yes, Your Honour. That has to be logically so |
on looking at the subsection, yes. Nevertheless,
the important role in the criminal justice system -
and that is why we say there is a point of general
interest here relating to the administration of
justice in New South Wales that having considered
the material, the cross-examination and the strong
defence of provocation, he committed him for trial
on a count of manslaughter. Shortly thereafter,
and it emerges in another chronology, the Director
of Public Prosecutions did as that office was
entitled to do, found an ex officio indictment on
the basis of murder and it was a stay in respect of
a trial predicated on that indictment that brought
Mr Kolalich before Mr Justice Sully and,
subsequently, to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
I think I have to answer something that you have not asked me, with respect, because I
anticipate it coming from my right. The fact that the magistrate had found there was an indictable
charge available against Mr Kolalich, although he
did not have to, as I have conceded to Your Honour,does not avail my friend to say, "Now, well, look,
he could have just sent him for trial.", and saying
out of this affray in this restaurant in the small
hours, "Clearly some criminal indictable offence
has been proved. I don't know what. I'll leave it to someone else to sort it out.", which would have
been unsatisfactory but theoretically he could do
by letter a few weeks later, "We say this is that. He found manslaughter. "No", says the DPP
murder. We do not tell you why.", and that is
relevant to the abuse of process point. We say, inferentially, "You, magistrate, got it wrong, it's now murder and we say the benefit that we're entitled to have had been put on trial for manslaughter, no other reasons having been advanced to suggest that that was an inappropriate charge, that there was an abuse of process as a result of
that."Might I just go briefly to some aspects of
what we say are the fallacious reasoning in the
judgment of the court in their reserve judgment ofFriday, 16 March 1990. That, as I think I have
| Kolalich | 6 | 7/8/91 |
told Your Honours, begins at page 27 in the appeal
book and, in particular I want to take the Court,
if I may, briefly, to portions of that which is to
be found at pages 37 and 38 in the appeal.
At the top of 37 there is some general remarks concerning provocation and the limits of that
statutory defence confining it to murder. We are faced with the clear terms of the statute and have nothing to say in relation to that. But, at about
line 24, on page 37, this occurs:
Furthermore, it is plain that, by the terms of
s 23, it is reserved to the jury to determine whether the act or omission causing death was "done or omitted under provocation".
So far, we have no quarrel, nor could we have any
quarrel, with that observation. We say it is not
the whole of the picture because the argument then
proceeds, and I pick it up at line 26:
That is not a decision which the law reposes in the committing magistrate.
Now in a sense, in that elliptical way, that is
right, but it is not the whole of it because the
magistrate cannot, nor did he presume in this case,
to say that the defence of provocation is provided
for by section 23 is made out. It was a matter appropriately for him to take into account and that
is what he has done.
So what occurs on page 37 at line 24 is to
misascribe, if there is such a word - to ascribe to
Mr Waller, the magistrate, a process of reasoning(a) that he did not undertake and (b) the result of
which was a proper decision for him to come to at
committal. It goes on:
That is not a decision which the law reposes in the committing magistrate. Not only is this the clear provision of s 23, giving the
language of the section its ordinary meaning.
It is also the historical function of the
constitutional tribunal which determines guilt
in contested cases of homicide, the jury.
To that we say, as far as it goes it is
correct because it identifies what is a motherhood
proposition in the criminal law, namely,
provocation is that the jury and that the trial
judge must so direct the jury and identify those
actual admissions or conduct which might constitute
provocation.
| Kolalich | 7 | 7/8/91 |
Having said that, we say that the argument was
fallacious in that it ignored the slightly
differently skewed way in which the magistrate at
committal did and should have treated that
evidence, and that without more for the charge to
be elevated post-committal from manslaughter to murder without any reasons being advanced which
would bring it into the narrow exceptional cases
where an ex officio indictment might lie, thereinlies the abuse of process and there are important
questions, as I have already said, and it is inMr Bellamy's affidavit and and it is in our grounds, that bear upon and touch upon the
administration of criminal justice in the State of
New South Wales.
There is one other, with respect to them,
flawed area of argument. Page 38, if Your Honours
would be so kind, following on in the appeal book,
at the bottom of the page at line 24 the following
occurs:
The result is that the magistrate's
"decision", to the extent that it determined
that the respondent should not be committedfor trial on a charge of murder but only
manslaughter, was misconceived in two
important ways.
We say, reciprocally, the Court of Criminal Appeal,
with respect, misconceived it and that the approach
taken by the magistrate was one he was entitled to
and, indeed, one he was bound to follow. Now, let
me try and identify, if I may, briefly, what we say
the flaws in the argument ascribing something to
the magistrate were. At the bottom of 38:
First, it overlooked the fact that the
provocation which the magistrate personally
considered to justify conviction only of the
lesser offence is available in the limited class of case only where the person charged is
on trial for murder.
Now, that is true but again that, with respect,
involves some blinked view by the Court of Criminal
Appeal in New South Wales in this case as to what
the_magistrate's function was, and you have already
have the benefit, if it be, of my submissions in
that regard.
Now, secondly it is said, this is at line 5, I
am on page 39:
Secondly, it overlooked the fact that bys 23
of the Crimes Act, the decision of whether or
| Kolalich | 7/8/91 |
not the provocation alleged warranted such a
finding is reserved by law to the jury.
It is really the same point. True it is that the
trial judge must so direct, explain what the law is
and what the available admitted evidence might be.
Having acknowledged that truism it is not a
criticism to make of the approach taken by the
magistrate in relation to the committal and that noother reason having been advanced the only
inference one can really draw is that by the
presentation of an ex officio indictment for murder post committal that, in effect, without the benefit of hearing the other side, the DPP was availing
itself is really of some appellate procedure
against a decision they did not like properly taken
on available material under the Justices Act
discharging his function, that that was a proper
course for the magistrate to take and in the
absence of any material, what Mr Justice Sully
says, that is the DPP not condescending to favourthe accused with any material as to why it was said
that the elevation of the manslaughter to murder
was appropriate, that there was an abuse of
process.
We do not say that any particular individual
was involved in some malevolent act, but we say
that in relation to the administration of criminal
justice, that result and that committal, in the wayin which it occurred, having produced that result,
that what the Court of Criminal Appeal has done is
to misunderstand, in a serious way, the nature of
the procedure and requirement of the magistrate at
41(2) and 41(6).
BRENNAN J: But in a sense this is all rather beside the
point, is it not? I mean, it was not an application to correct the committal order so that
he was committed for murder. That was accepted as
being a committal for manslaughter or, more
accurately, it was accepted as being a committal. Now, the question is whether, by the addition of the words "for manslaughter" by the magistrate,
that in some way some vested right was then
conferred on the person committed.
MR HORLER: - I cannot say it was a vested right, Your Honour,
ancf I do not say that. What I was trying to put,
in terms of an unofficial de facto appeal procedure
is that, there being an absence of any material or
evidence at any stage from the Director of Public
Prosecutions to explain or justify the return to
the charge that had put this man in the dock, he
then being charged with murder when he was broughtbefore the magistrate at committal - he could not
be just in the dock as a result of a general
| Kolalich | 9 | 7/8/91 |
awareness of some criminality, he was charged with
murder and, true it is that at the end of the day
the magistrate did not have to commit him on a
specific charge.
The only inference, we say, is available is that the OPP, aggrieved by that result, has in
effect used its clear powers - and we do not come
to quarrel at that either, nor can we - to present
an ex officio indictment. What is really happening is an appeal, which is not provided for in law, by an aggrieved OPP, against a decision which it does
like, of the magistrate to commit him on that
charge. That was the proposition.
McHUGH J: | Mr Horler, I just have some difficulty with the procedure. Could I just put to you what my | |
| thinking is about the matter. This was an | ||
| information for murder and when the magistrate | ||
| reached the section 41(2) stage he had to determine whether there was evidence capable of satisfying a | ||
| jury beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant has | ||
| ||
| question had to be answered yes, did it not? | ||
| MR HORLER: | Yes. | |
| McHUGH J: | The magistrate was then required to proceed to |
the 41(6) stage and, having regard to the evidence of provocation the magistrate was entitled to take the view - well, arguably entitled to take the
view - that a jury would not be likely to convict
the defendant of murder.
| MR HORLER: | Yes. |
| McHUGH J: | He then should have discharged the information in |
relation to murder and then recharged the defendant
with manslaughter, should he not?
| MR HORLER: Logically, yes. | |
| McHUGH J: | And that is the way it is usually done, is it |
not?
MR HORLER: With respect, Your Honour, whose experience
before Your Honour was on the bench would be wider
than mine, but it is not always done that way. It
is blurred. That process that Your Honour has
identified must be logically correct when you
thread your way from 41(2) to 41(6). I am leaving the intervening subsections to one side because
they do not matter for the moment, but that is whatshould have been done but it is rarely done in that
logical way.
McHUGH J: It used to be done.
| Kolalich | 10 | 7/8/91 |
| MR HORLER: | Yes, and it was not done by Mr Waller and I |
would have to concede that you need a bit of work
to follow the blurred way in which this procedure
was followed out because I am reminded that the
decision, not murder but manslaughter, was first
articulated by the magistrate at 41(2) but it
repeats itself and clarifies itself at 41(6) after
the formalities of the intervening subsection when
the defendant was told he could give evidence and
did not do so and so on. The answer is, logically yes, but it is rarely done. There is some view
and, perhaps, folklore that the discharge may, in
fact, given an unintended benefit to the defendant
and some magistrates are nervous about doing it in
that way.
McHUGH J: Well, it is a long time since I appeared in a
committal proceedings but that was the way it used
to be done, not really in relation to murder but in
relation to other offences.
MR HORLER: Yes. If not (a), but (b); I discharge you
on (a) and put you up on (b). It is done but it is
not widely done, but that is emperical evidence
from the bar table and not worth much.
BRENNAN J: What happens then, do they start the proceedings
de novo?
MR HORLER: If we succeed here, I just did not catch - - -
| BRENNAN J: | No, I am just trying to follow the procedure |
which - your answer to Justice McHugh. You put
forward as being, as I understood it, the ideal
procedure?
| MR HORLER: | I am agreeing with Mr Justice McHugh that, |
logically, if you are going to nominate a particular indictable matter that is how, logically, it should be done and I am agreeing with
Mr Justice McHugh that it is sometimes done and not
always done, but when it is done in the way in which the Judge has reminded me, it does not start
de novo, it is a form of words similar to those
used by Mr Justice McHugh. In relation to charge (a), you are discharged, however, and then
following the language of 41(6) in the New South
Wales Justices Act, "however" - and there is the
gear change - "I commit you for trial upon
charge (b)". So, Your Honour, it does not require
anything more than a form of words not verydifferent from that which I have announced.
McHUGH J: It probably should, having regard to the rules of
natural justice. I can remember being irritated a could of times at the bar when magistrates would
commit you on a lesser charge, in effect, when you
| Kolalich | 11 | 7/8/91 |
were not really given the opportunity to address on
it.
MR HORLER: Yes. Theoretically, yes, and I suppose that
would require intermediately for the magistrate to
say, "Well, Mr Prosecutor, do you rely upon all the
evidence that was in respect of charge (a)", but
there is an artificiality about that which I think
we would all recognize.
Your Honours, those are typical of the wrong
approach which, with respect, we say informed the
whole of the Court of Criminal Appeal approach.
You have, in summary, the submissions. We say it is a matter of general importance because it is
just not confined to the particular concerns of
Mr Kolalich but does touch upon the limited use of
ex officio indictments. There is the unresolved
matter of leave, we being out of time. Unless
there is any other matter, I do not wish to say
anything further.
McHUGH J: There is just one other point which perhaps I
can - - -
| MR HORLER: | Yes. |
McHUGH J: Section 41(6) has been changed since I was at the
bar. It was changed around 1985 or 1986, I think,
was it not?
MR HORLER: In the wake of Wentworth v Rogers, No 400, it
did get changed?
MCHUGH J: Yes.
| MR HORLER: | Your Honours, we have here copies - we have |
somewhere - of - if Your Honours do not have before you the current - 41(2) and 41(6), would that be of
assistance? Your Honours have it?
| MCHUGH J: Yes. | |
MR HORLER: | Your Honour, yes, it did change but nothing in respect of those changes touches upon what we have |
| come to argue. Those are my submissions. | |
| GAUDRON J: | What orders do you seek if you are successful? |
| MR HORLER: | I answer in the alternative and a bit of |
chronology: Mr Justice Sully made an order staying. That is the order we would want
reinstated. In the alternative, with the
expression of the view of this Court, to go back,
to remit it to the Court - - -
| Kolalich | 12 | 7/8/91 |
GAUDRON J: Yes, because you do not seem to have dealt with
whether or not a stay was an appropriate order in
the circumstances.
MR HORLER: That is true, but maybe that is something we
have all overlooked, but it does not seem to have
loomed large - - -
GAUDRON J: Well, the Court of Criminal Appeal did not have
to deal with it, of course, in the way it
approached the matter.
MR HORLER: Well, Your Honour, we have something to say on
that on the second page of our submissions on
page 2 paragraph 4(a), (b) and (c). If
Your Honours please.
| MASON CJ: | Thank you, Mr Horler. | The Court will adjourn now |
until 2.15.
AT 12.56 PM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED UNTIL
LATER THE SAME DAY
UPON RESUMING AT 2.33 PM:
MASON CJ: Yes, Mr Solicitor.
| MR MASON: | I have a brief outline of our submissions. |
MASON CJ: Thank you. Yes.
| MR MASON: | Your Honours, we submit that it is wrong to |
suggest that the Director of Public Prosecution had
any duty to give reasons for the decision which he
took and to suggest that his failure to be bound by
the magistrate's view of the matter was even presumptively the basis of an abuse of process.
The question of bad faith was rejected by
Mr Justice Sully, at page 11, and the issue
therefore became one of whether the magistrate
having formed the view on the facts that he had
before him that the jury were likely to accept that
the matter would be reduced from murder to
manslaughter because of provocation, whether the
Director of Public Prosecutions was bound by that
in the sense that his disagreement with it amounted
to an abuse of process.
The Criminal Procedure Act section 4(2), which
is set out at page 32 of the application book,
confirms that which, in our submission, the common
law would establish that the power to .issue an
| Kolalich | 13 | 7/8/91 |
ex officio indictment is not controlled by the fact
that committal may have been on a different or
lesser basis.
In the passage from Gr~ssby's case, which is
referred to in paragraph 2 of the submissions,
there is a statement by Your Honour
Mr Justice Dawson with which the rest of the Court
agreed - 168 CLR 1, at pages 13 and 14, at the very
bottom of the page that:
The Attorney-General or Director of Public
Prosecutions is not bound by the decision of a magistrate to commit or not to commit a person for trial. An indictment may be filed whether or not the accused has been committed for
trial upon the charge contained in the
indictment, indeed, even if the accused has
been discharged in committal proceedings.
Your Honours, it is not on our list but if I could just ask the Court to note that in a recent
decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal van
Lieven v Stewart, (1990) 21 NSWLR 52, at pages 55
and 68, the members of the court there said that
the proper course for a director, who is unhappy
with a discharge of a person on committal, is not
to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal but to
exercise the power of presenting an ex officio
indictment.
McHUGH J: But a lot may depend upon the facts,
Mr Solicitor. Take a case where at the 41(2) stage the magistrate acquits of a murder charge but then
recharges the accused in relation to manslaughter
and as a result the accused goes into evidence.
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
| McHUGH J: | Now, for the DPP to prefer a murder indictment in |
those circumstances might well constitute an abuse
of process, the accused having prejudiced himself, in the sense that he exposed himself in relation to the lesser charge, having been discharged of the more serious charge?
| MR MASON: | An accused could be in that position - I see what |
Your Honour is putting, that he did that in
reliance upon the fact the murder charge had not
been satisfied.
MCHUGH J: Yes.
| MR MASON: | I would submit that that would be, as it were - |
that decision would be made against the background
and the knowledge that the attorney or the DPP has
the right to present an ex officio indictment, or
| Kolalich | 14 | 7/8/91 |
to put it another way the decision of the
magistrate does not foreclose the right of thejury, in a proper case, to consider the charge
preferred by the Crown and, in my submission,
whilst I would accept there maybe a situation, I
would not accept that every time the scenario you
put to me that would occur.
In the present case, the relevant facts are at
pages 39 and 40 and at line 18 of page 39 there is a summary of the facts which we would respectfully adopt, but here it was far from a sure thing that a
jury would have to be satisfied that provocation
was made out in this case. I know I have reversed the onus but subject to that, if the Court would accept the submission that there was some delay, the facts were that the deceased hit someone and
then there was a scuffle. The deceased went into the kitchen, was followed by the respondent, and
was there stabbed by the respondent. So, in our
submission, as - - -
DEANE J: But, are you not hurdling the question of
principle to get on to the facts of this case in
that, as I read what the Court of Criminal Appeal
has said, and as I read what you say in
paragraph 3, even if you had a case where the Crown
conceded that provocation was inevitably made out
and no properly instructed jury could convict of
murder that, none the less, the magistrate should
not confine himself to manslaughter and as I read
paragraph 3 of your submission, none the less, the
Crown should not confine itself to manslaughter.
| MR MASON: | Yes. That paragraph is put, clearly I hope, by |
way of an alternative submission because we are
saying in this case that there were alternative
bases, but taking that as the question of
principle, in order to convict of manslaughterbased upon provocation, the jury would have to be
satisfied of the mental element to be found in
murder and then if there was evidence of provocation the Crown, if unable to rebut that
beyond reasonable doubt, the jury would - - -
| DEANE J: | I follow that, but that is a problem with the |
judgment in that if the judgment of the Court of
Cr1minal Appeal stands, rightly or wrongly, it will
establish the practice whereby the magistrates in
New South Wales feel that in any case where
provocation is raised they should not confine
committal to manslaughter.
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
| Kolalich | 15 | 7/8/91 |
| DEANE J: Now, that may be right. | It does not accord with |
my understanding of an area where my understanding
is very limited.
| MR MASON: | The submission we put, Your Honour, is that the provocation is a peculiar doctrine of the common |
| called Holmes's case, it is now well established by | |
| the cases referred to in paragraph 4 that the Crown | |
| must establish all of the elements of murder | |
| before, in effect, the question of provocation | |
| comes in to play. | |
| There must, in addition, be evidence suitable to go the jury of the elements of provocation, and | |
| if there is, the matter then goes to the jury, and | |
| whilst New South Wales law for a time reversed the | |
| onus, it is clear now under the present section 23 | |
| that the common law position is that the Crown must | |
| negate provocation, once there is evidence of it, | |
| beyond reasonable doubt. | |
| Section 23 in its terms, in our submission, does correctly support the Court of Appeal's | |
| decision that he proper way in which to charge for provocation is to charge with murder and to leave the question of provocation to the jury, and it is | |
| set out on page 36. | |
GAUDRON J: | Does that mean that the OPP can never charge manslaughter where he is satisfied of provocation; |
| that he himself must always charge murder? |
MR MASON: That is the submission, yes, Your Honour.
GAUDRON J: And magistrates must always commit for murder?
MR MASON: | No, the magistrate does not have to commit for anything. It would appear from section 4(2), which |
| is referred to on page 32, that the legislature | |
| |
| would commit for a particular charge, but section | |
| 42 does not appear to require that situation. |
GAUDRON J: But in any event they cannot commit for
manslaughter and fail to commit for murder, in the
way that was done in this case?
MR MASON: Well, they cannot, by committing for
manslaughter, bring about a situation that - I
think, to answer the question that is being put to
me, it would never be improper for an indictment
for murder to be presented if there was a committal
for murder on this alternative proposition.
| Kolalich | 16 | 7/8/91 |
GAUDRON J: The question is, really: leaving aside no
specific charge, if there were to be a committal on
a specific charge, is it your submission that the
only specific charge which might properly be thesubject of a committal order in a case such as this
one was murder?
| MR MASON: | Yes, it is, but I do have an alternative |
submission on the facts of this case.
| DEANE J: | Mr Solicitor, what if at the 41(2) stage the |
magistrate was of the view that the evidence was
not capable of satisfying a jury that provocation
was negatived? Surely the only indictable offence
that remains at that stage is manslaughter; and if
he is making a ruling, should he not then direct to
the accused, who has to decide whether to embark on
evidence, that the indictable offence that he is
finding the evidence is capable of satisfying a
jury acting properly, is manslaughter.
| MR MASON: | Your Honour, I do not accept that section 41(2) |
requires the magistrate to have in mind a specific
and limited indictable offence.
| McHUGH J: | But surely that flows from 41(1). | He has to |
discharge him as to the information then under
inquiry. Can that mean anything except the information which is dealing with the offence upon
an information under section 21, brought under
41(1)?
| MR MASON: | Can I answer that in two ways. | We did, over the |
lunch time, find two cases which clearly satisfied
the practice that Your Honour was referring to
earlier. Could I just give the Court the reference
to those? They are ex parte Williams (1928)
45 NSWWN 189 and ex parte McQuillan, (1932)
49 NSWWN 87, and in each case the court said that
if the magistrate decides in effect that the
offence charged has not been made out, the course
is to dismiss it but to recharge and to allow an opportunity for further cross-examination or an
adjournment to follow if there is anything fresh
arising from it.
| BRENNAN J: | Were the provisions then the same as they are |
now?
| MR MASON: | In so far as they use offence upon an |
information, yes. Section 42(6) has been changed
following Wentworth v Rogers.
McHUGH J: 41(6).
| Kolalich | 17 | 7/8/91 |
MR MASON: 41(6), thank you. But the reference to an
indictable offence appears to have been there from
the beginning.
Notwithstanding that, in my submission, while
section 41(1) clearly has in mind an information
charging with a particular offence, 41(2) does not
require the magistrate to, as a matter of law, be
satisfied in relation to the particular offence
charged.
The doctrine of natural justice may, of
course, provide some limit upon the magistrate's capacity to, as it were, reformulate the charge, but -
McHUGH J: But so does subsection (4), because he has to be
asked what his answer is in relation to the
particular charge.
MR MASON: Yes. Well, subsection (4) flowing from
subsection (2) - and one of the questions is "Do
you wish to say anything in answer to the charge"
so presumably by that stage there has to be nodoubt as to what the charge is.
It would not, in our submission, have to be
the charge that was the subject of the original
information. It could be the accusation of which a
prima facie case has been shown when the magistrate
forms the view under subsection (2) that an
indictable offence has occurred and, presumably,
there would be no doubt at that stage what
indictable offence or offences the court has before
them.
| BRENNAN J: | Mr Solicitor, I guess, of course, it is in utter |
ignorance in relation to New South Wales practice
under these provision but it strikes me that it is
curious in the extreme that if, in proceeding under
section 41, a magistrate comes to the view that he
is going to discharge an accused on the charge then before him the accused is not then discharged once
and for all on that charge because he is only
before the magistrate on the question of his
custody. Now, once he is discharged of that he
cannot surely be kept in custody except on some
fresh charge?
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
| BRENNAN J: | So if the magistrate then chooses to charge him, |
as it were, from the bench or some alternative
charge, surely some justification for continuedcustody must be shown in the form of new evidence.
But this seems to have been regarded as a practice,
if I understand it correctly, which treated the
| Kolalich | 18 | 7/8/91 |
whole as one simple proceeding although
ex hypothesi one would think, in principle, he musthave been discharged from custody?
| MR MASON: | The cases I referred to speak about the |
depositions to be tendered and used in the inquiry
in the substituted charge so there would - and I
perceive what you are putting to me - be formal
compliance with what is behind Your Honour's
question in that the evidence is freshly put before
the court subsequent to the amended charge.
| BRENNAN J: | I can understand that there may be two separate |
proceedings, both of them governed by this section.
What I do not understand is how this section can,
as it were, apply to proceedings which are but one,
where there is a change in the charge in the form
that is suggested there.
| MR MASON: | And that "but one" in this case being murder. |
BRENNAN J: Well, the charge of murder, yes.
MR MASON: That being the charge of the information.
BRENNAN J: Yes.
MR MASON: | Well, it is certainly clear that in this case the magistrate did not really do that. There are | |
| perhaps two answers to Your Honour's question: one | ||
| is that it was not open and the magistrate really | ||
| reached the stage where he should have discharged | ||
| the person altogether; the second is that the | ||
| words "an indictable offence" have that flexibility | ||
| that I was putting. It is not so clear, in this | ||
| case, that the magistrate was as specific as is | ||
| ||
| application book because what he said at the top, | ||
| this was after having asked, as it were, the 41(4) | ||
| questions and being told that no evidence was to be | ||
|
on this charge of manslaughter.
And that is the 41(6) decision.
I will commit to trial. I think I will commit to the District Court. It may be of course that my decision is only an intermediate
decision, that some other decision could be
made by the prosecuting authority.
We would submit that clearly is an indication that
the magistrate was not intending to .foreclose the
right to do otherwise and it may be a question of
| Kolalich | 19 | 7/8/91 |
whether that was not the operative order. He then goes on, in the next paragraph: The defendant is committed for trial before the District Court -
and there is no reference at that stage to what the
offence for which the committal was. So, on onereading of what happened he did, following
Your Honour Justice Brennan's approach, confine
himself to the charge that was before him and
commit notwithstanding that he expressed his own
view as to the fact that he did not think that it
would go beyond manslaughter.
McHUGH J: Section 41A(l)(b) seems to be a legislative
recognition of the practice of magistrates
committing for trial in respect of an offence whichis not identical with that with which he was
charged.
| MR MASON: | Yes, thank you. |
DEANE J: It appears, does it, Mr Solicitor, that nobody
said what appears at page 4 of the book? Just
reading it I would have thought the magistrate said
that.
| MR MASON: | I am sorry, I have not picked up what Your Honour |
is putting.
DEANE J: The:
defendant is committed for trial on a charge
of manslaughter to the District Court,
Sydney -
or am I reading the wrong thing?
| MR MASON: | Yes, about line 40? |
| DEANE J: Yes. Nobody, in fact, said those - - - |
| MR MASON: | Those words were not actually said. | That is some |
sort of court record of what goes before, in my
submission.
| DEANE J: | It is not a matter of submission. | Somebody said |
it or somebody did not.
| MR MASON: | Yes. Well, going by the inference I would get |
from reading the transcript, I would so submit.
McHUGH J: Magistrates used to say that. That is what they
used to say.
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
| Kolalich | 7/8/91 |
| DEANE J: | I mean, it is strange if some clerk was just left |
to translate what the magistrate said about
Liliana Domoska into a formal condition of a bail
order.
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
BRENNAN J: Is there a stamp that they use in the
magistrates court?
Not any more.
| MR MASON: | Your Honours, an additional case that was on my |
friend's list, O'Neill, (1989) 46 A Crim R 394, a
South Australian case where a person was committed
for sentence on one charge and was indicted on a
greater charge and on the particular facts held not
to be an abuse of process for that having occurred.
Your Honours, in support of the submission in
paragraph 3, we rely primarily upon the wording of
section 23 which, as it were, encapsulates the law
on provocation in New South Wales.
McHUGH J: But, the magistrate has got a duty under 41(6),
and if he forms the opinion that having regard to
all the evidence before him or her, a jury would
not be likely to convict a defendant of an
indictable offence, then he or she is obliged to
discharge the information then under inquiry.
| MR MASON: | Yes, and if the word "an indictable offence" in |
the earlier provisions means "the specific
indictable offence", then what should have happened
here was a discharge followed, perhaps, by a
recharging of the accused with manslaughter. We would submit that had that happened there would
still have been no abuse of process: (a) because
the OPP was entitled to take a different view; and
(b) because to take, as it were, the higher ground,
that is the only way in which manslaughter based on
provocation can properly be charged.
| GAUDRON J: | Can I interrupt? | I am confused, Mr Solicitor. |
Do you concede in a case such as this that the
magistrate could discharge on murder and recharge
and commit on manslaughter?
| MR MASON: | r think, Your Honour, it must follow from the |
submission I am putting about the way the matter
must go to the jury, as it were, on the indictment
that neither could the magistrate discharge the
information if it is an information for murder, but
as long as the magistrate was satisfied, as he had
to be, that there was the mens rea for
murder - because you do not get to provocation
without that - then even if there was strong
| Kolalich | 21 | 7/8/91 |
evidence of provocation, the charge which could
have gone to the jury was one of murder - I submit,
murder only - and, therefore, the magistrate should
not have discharged that information.
McHUGH J: But if he forms the opinion that a jury would not
be likely to convict of murder, then he is obliged
to give effect to his opinion, is he not, by reasonof section 41(6)?
MR MASON: Well, here, certainly by way of one alternative,
I retreat to emphasize the words "an indictable
offence" as being the test for a discharge under
subparagraph (6). Therefore, unless he was of theopinion that the jury would not convict of any
indictable offence, then the power to forthwith
order the discharge is absent.
If, of course, he was of opinion that they
would not convict of murder but would be likely to
convict of shoplifting, there may well be all sorts
of obligations in natural justice to see that a
properly formulated charge was conveyed and thematter, as it were, started afresh, albeit that the
transcript was re-tendered.
| GAUDRON J: | Why is not negativing provocation, once there is |
evidence of it, an element of proving murder? When
you have regard to the Woolmington principle, which
is now incorporated into the Crimes Act, as it
were, why would you think that a prima facie case
of murder is made out simply because the
intentional element is satisfied and the act
causing death is satisfied?
| MR MASON: | The answer I would give is because the |
reformulation of the common law of provocation in
New South Wales in section 23 speaks of it being on
a trial for murder, and so, illogical though it
seems, that is the straitjacket that Parliament has
cast provocation which, granted that it will result
in the only proper verdict being one of manslaughter, the only proper charge is one of
murder.
Another way of putting it is that Parliament
has said, in effect, that that must be a matter for
the jury and, in that way, as it were, picking up
on the historical aspect of provocation, which
really was a method of tempering what was
otherwise, in the eye of the law, seen to be the
correct verdict.
BRENNAN J: | Is there a practice in New South Wales of asking jurors who return a verdict of manslaughter on a |
| trial of murder, and where provocation and absence |
| Kolalich | 22 | 7/8/91 |
of mens rea are both raised, as to the ground on
which they acquit of murder?
| MR MASON: | I cannot answer that from my own knowledge. | May |
I see if I can find out? My junior, who is a Crown
prosecutor, says from his knowledge, no, but I do
not know whether -
McHUGH J: In my experience they just always take a general
verdict.
| MR HORLER: | We agree, inasmuch as anecdotal experience. |
BRENNAN J: It raises difficulties for sentencing.
| MR MASON: | Yes. | Of course, the jury would be entitled to |
reach their verdict by different paths, anyway,
so - - -
BRENNAN J: It is not a question of the jury being obliged
to answer the question, as to whether the jury
would wish to answer the question.
| GAUDRON J: | One aspect of what you put, Mr Solicitor, seems |
to be that the appropriate prosecution discretion in a case like this would either be not to charge
at all or to charge for murder.
| MR MASON: | May I ask, you are putting to me, perhaps, |
a - - -
GAUDRON J: Hypothetical -
| MR MASON: | - - -stronger case where |
GAUDRON J: No, in any case. Well, yes, perhaps -
MR MASON: Yes. Let it be assumed that it was an
overwhelming case of provocation. That certainly
is what I am putting in that alternative argument.
| GAUDRON J: So, it is a departure from practice, is it not? |
| MR MASON: | On my instructions, no. | On my inquiries the |
practice has always been to charge with murder.
| McHUGH J: | What about diminished responsibility, because 23A |
raises exactly the same question about diminished
responsibility as 23 does with provocation. On your submission, the magistrate could never commit
for manslaughter by reason of diminished
responsibility and the accused could not even beindicted for manslaughter by reason - - -
| MR MASON: | Yes, what I am saying must apply. | The language |
seems to be identical, yes, Your Honour. I just noticed 23(1) says:
| Kolalich | 23 | 7/8/91 |
the jury shall acquit ..... of murder and find
the accused guilty of manslaughter.
Section 23A tends to make the jury's alternative
function perhaps a little less obvious. If there
is:
Diminished responsibility ..... shall not be
convicted of murder.
| McHUGH J: | He carries the onus? |
| MR MASON: | Yes, there is an onus and there is a liberty to |
convict of manslaughter. So, perhaps, I answer too
readily. But in so far as it is the words:
Where, on the trial of a person for
murder -
that seems to be the critical factor in the Court
of Appeal's decision and, in my submission, there
would be the same and therefore the correct way is
to charge with murder.
| GAUDRON J: | Can you accept a plea to manslaughter? |
MR MASON: Certainly, yes.
GAUDRON J: Without a trial? On the mere presentation of
the indictment?
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
| GAUDRON J: | Why is that? |
| MR MASON: | I have to say because - |
GAUDRON J: If it is exclusively a jury question it cannot
be, you will have to say something else about 23.
| MR MASON: | Yes. | The words: |
on the trial of a person -
really are not meant in their technical sense on
what I am submitting, they do not mean when you are
put upon the jury.
GAUDRON J: But if they do not have their technical sense,
in that context, why do they have their technical
meaning in the sense that you cannot take it into
account in formulating the indictment?
MR MASON: | Because they have got to be given some meaning and the meaning they are given, in my submission, |
| is they mean where a person is accused of murder. |
| Kolalich | 24 | 7/8/91 |
GAUDRON J: Yes. Why does not one - yes, where a person is
accused of murder?
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
GAUDRON J: But I mean one can be accused of murder in all
sorts of ways?
| MR MASON: | But not by an indictment charging manslaughter. |
GAUDRON J: But I would have thought that what the words
were really intended to do was to overcome the
problem which outside - well in another context
might be, "It is a defence to murder."
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
GAUDRON J: Clearly, we are not dealing with a defence in
the strict term. What is being dealt with is a matter that must be negatived by the Crown so you
do not talk about it in terms of "it is a defence",
what you do instead is use that formula:
Where, on the trial of a person for murder.
If it is intended to do more than that it does seem
to run into difficulties with the Woolmington
principle.
| MR MASON: | I certainly am not suggesting that there is any |
reversal of the onus. Section 23 clearly confines
whatever tinkering it does with the common law to
murder and there is a debate, in any event, whether
you can have provocation as a defence to other
forms of homicide or, indeed, other crimes. My
submission is that those words have to be given
some meaning in their present context, and the
meaning given by the Court of Appeal was correct.
| DEANE J: | Mr Solicitor, you get a little support for your |
global approach to subsection (6), do you not, if you turn your mind to alternative offences? I mean, if the charge was larceny or receiving it
would create an absurd position if the magistrate
had to decide which was the more likely, and could
commit the accused for trial on one only.
MR MASON: Y~s, especially if as I understand the law to be
that the jury can convict even on just a
probability basis. Yes, thank you.
| GAUDRON J: | I mean, if the magistrate were to form a clear |
view one way or the other, then you are in a
different situation.
MR MASON: | You are if an indictable offence means a specific indictable offence and none other, or if it means |
| Kolalich | 25 | 7/8/91 |
the offence charged and none other. On one of the
permutations and combinations of my submissions, I
submit it does not mean that.
| McHUGH J: | Mr Solicitor, do you accept that the magistrate |
must identify the offence for which the accused is
committed for trial?
| MR MASON: | No, I certainly do not. | My submission is that |
the section really contemplates that in the
ordinary course he or she would not.
McHUGH J: Well, how would you know how to fix bail? In the
case of murder bail would usually be refused. In the case of manslaughter it would probably be granted.
| MR MASON: | If it were critical, one can see why the |
magistrate would need to condescend to
particularity, but if we were dealing with a whole
range of different ways of charging complicity in
involvement in a homicide or a number of
alternative technical charges of dishonesty, my
submission is that it is not a prerequisite to the
exercise of the magistrate's jurisdiction to commit
that the magistrate formulate the charges with the
precision that a Crown prosecutor would in finding
a true bill.
McHUGH J: That may be but nevertheless surely it is an
inquiry under 41(1) which itself goes back to 21.
If you lay in information that a person is
suspected of committing an indictable offence, and
then under 41 you have a hearing on the charge of
that indictable of f·ence, surely that is what he is
committed for trial on, the offence that is in the
indictment, or in the information.
| MR MASON: | You are not saying that and none other, that is |
the point where I am seeking to disagree.
| McHUGH J: | He might be put up on other charges. |
MR MASON: In my submission, in effect, once, as it were, he
is committed for trial on anything within the
realms of natural justice within the concept of the
hearing that has gone before, once he has been
committed for trial bail matters are dealt with
separately and the formulation of the particular
charges for which he is to be indicted, under the
practice, are determined separately and
subsequently, not just as a matter of drafting the indictment but also as a matter of considering the merits of whether to put the person for trial
anyway.
| Kolalich | 26 | 7/8/91 |
McHUGH J: But it sounds extraordinary that somebody would
be committed for trial, sent out to Long Bay and
somebody said to him, "Now, what are committed
some general charge". for?", he said, "I'm sorry, I don't know, it's just
MR MASON: Well, it would obviously be a fair guess that he
was committed for the offence for which he was
charged under 41(1), but not necessarily.
| GAUDRON J: | He is going to charged again under 41(4), is he |
not- - -
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
GAUDRON J: - - -at some stage? For the procedures in
41(4), (5) and (6) to be followed there must be a
charge again at that stage?
| MR MASON: | Yes, but not necessarily encompassing each and |
every permutation and combination of what he may be
guilty of or said to be guilty of. I appreciate, from Your Honour Justice McHugh's example earlier,
that one can think of a situation where the person
thinks, "Well, they've only got me on this one.Well, I will go in the box and see what happens.", but in the ordinary course we would say that nothing in the language of section 41 requires the
matter for which he is charged, either under 41(1)
or under 41(4), to be the matter or the only matter
on which he is committed for trial.
DEANE J: But what if he is charged with 20 offences of
robbery with violence and 20 offences of larceny
and the magistrate finds that no jury is likely to
convict him on any but one charge of larceny, is
the submission that the magistrate simply says,
"Well, after all this hearing on these 40 charges,I find that there's evidence on one charge of
larceny and that's good enough, you're committed
for trial"?
| MR MASON: | No. Well, certainly at the 41(4) stage he would |
be entitled to know which one he is looking at.
DEANE J: Assume, in your favour for the argument, that he
passes the 41(2) stage in relation to the 40 and it
is-when the 41(6) stage is reached that the
mag1strate said, "The jury would obviously throw
out 39 of those charges"?
| MR MASON: | Then, as to the one that is - the magistrate |
would clearly formulate in the course of the
reasons he actually gave the one that was left and
identify it.
| Kolalich | 27 | 7/8/91 |
DEANE J: But he would be acting wrongly if he said, "I
discharge you on 39 of these and commit you for trial on the fortieth", because is that not the implication?
| MR MASON: | If he indicated which 39 were swept away, and |
said, "I commit you on the remaining one", he would
not be acting wrongly but as long as it is clear
which one is left he does not need to formulate
like an indictment the different legal permutations
and combinations of the fact situation that is
left.
DEANE J: Then it follows from that answer, does it not,
that the argument you are putting as to the
magistrate acting wrongly is confined to the caseof murder/manslaughter.
| MR MASON: | Oh, yes. | The acting wrongly in committing him |
for manslaughter, based on provocation - - -
DEANE J: Because the Court of Appeal's reasoning seems to
apply to any case where the decision is for the
jury.
MR MASON: Well, I would submit that that should be read
subject to the context, which is the section 23A
provocation context.
| BRENNAN J: | Mr Solicitor, in section 41(6)(a), at the end of |
it, there is a reference to discharging the accused
as to the information then under inquiry. I notice
that there is a reference to an information under
section 21 in section 41(1). Is there any other
information to which the 41(6) reference might
apply, other than the information in 41(1)?
| MR MASON: | No, there could not be, as I would read it, |
Your Honour. It must be the information then under inquiry. Of course, there may have been amendments, as it were, in the course of the
committal, but subject - - -
BRENNAN J: Yes, subject to whatever power of amendment
justices have.
| MR MASON: | Yes. | It would be the one referred to in 21 and |
41_(1).
| BRENNAN J: | And in the case of multiple offences, is there |
case to join in one information multiple offences?
| MR MASON: | The answer is, yes, I would submit. | Can I just |
check? No, there would be separate informations.
BRENNAN J: Separate informations.
| Kolalich | 28 | 7/8/91 |
| DEANE J: | You can have more than one information in the one |
document?
| MR MASON: | Yes. |
BRENNAN J: If you have separate informations, the problem
which you discussed with Justice Deane has to be
read, as it were, distributively.
| MR MASON: | Yes, and so he would identify the ones that were |
being struck out and leave the one that was there,
so the person could say, "Well, what have you been
committed to trial for?" "The one that is left", but non constat, in our submission, that the
magistrate has to commit him on that basis or thatthe trial or indictment has to be formulated in the way of the original information, because there will be a fresh information when the person is indicted
for trial.
MASON CJ: Is a separate summons issued in respect of each
separate information?
| MR MASON: | At the committal stage or the trial stage? |
MASON CJ: At the committal stage.
MR MASON: | I think the answer is yes. With that limited assistance to the Court, those are our submissions. |
MASON CJ: Thank you, Mr Solicitor. Yes, Mr Horler.
MR HORLER: There is nothing on which I wish to reply, thank
you, Your Honour.
| MASON CJ: | The Court will consider its decision in this |
matter.
| AT 3.23 PM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED SINE DIE |
| Kolalich | 29 | 7/8/91 |
Key Legal Topics
Areas of Law
-
Criminal Law
-
Civil Procedure
Legal Concepts
-
Appeal
-
Stay of Proceedings
-
Charge
-
Procedural Fairness
0
1
0