Reading v AttorneyGeneral

Die Jovis, 1° Martii 1951

Parliamentary Archives,
HL/PO/JU/4/3/1010

Lord
Chancellor

Lord
Porter

Lord
Normand

Lord
Oaksey

Lord
Radcliffe

HOUSE OF LORDS

READING
v.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL (on behalf of His Majesty)

Lord Porter

MY LORDS,

The Lord Chancellor, who is unable to be present today, asks me to say
that he concurs in the opinion I am about to deliver.

Lord Porter

MY LORDS,

This is an Appeal from an Order of the Court of Appeal dated the 19th
May, 1949, affirming the judgment of the Honourable Mr. Justice Denning
(as he then was), and ordering that the Suppliant's Appeal from the said
judgment be dismissed with costs to be paid by the Suppliant to the Crown
or its Solicitor, such costs to be taxed by a Taxing Master.

In 1944 and 1945 certain sums, all in Egyptian currency, amounting in all
to £E18,842.105, equivalent to £19,325 4s. 8d. in sterling, and held by or
on behalf of the Suppliant, were seized and taken into possession on behalf
of His Majesty.

By Petition of Right presented on the 1st November, 1946, the Suppliant
sought to recover these sums or their sterling equivalent (allowance being
made for sums released to him), as money had and received by His Majesty
to his use.

The Respondent admitted that these sums had been seized and taken
into possession on behalf of His Majesty but alleged that they represented
part of the proceeds of bribery and that the Suppliant was accountable
therefor to His Majesty and received and held them in trust for His Majesty.
Alternatively he claimed that the Respondent was entitled to set them off
against the Suppliant's Claim.

The facts proved or agreed in the Action are not in dispute and may
succinctly be stated substantially in the form adopted by the Appellant in
his case and are as follows : -

(A) In 1943 and 1944 the Appellant was a Sergeant in the Royal
Army Medical Corps and receiving pay at the rate appropriate to his
Rank. He was employed as a Sergeant in charge of medical stores at
No. 63 General Hospital, Cairo.

(B) On the 14th March, 1944, he dictated and signed a statement to
Lieutenant Brooks of the Special Investigation Branch, Middle East,
that he had received in all some £20,000 from a man named Manole
in the following circumstances:

Some time about the beginning of 1943, when having coffee at
Alexandria whilst on leave, he was asked by a man, who apparently
knew him but whom he did not know, whether he would assist by
selling cases of whisky and brandy to agents in Cairo for which he
would get a few pounds. The Appellant expressed his willingness and
was told that someone would get into contact with him outside the

2

hospital gates at Helmeih and tell him what he had to do. About a
month later Manole met him there, told him a lorry was coming at
a specified time to a place which was pointed out…