JUSTICES' MISTAKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 138, 13 June 1929, Page 6

JUSTICES' MISTAKE.

EXCEEDED THEIR POWERS.

JUDGE QUASHES AN ORDER,

"The justices acted without jurisdiction in issuing this prohibition order. They had no more right under the circumstances to issue a prohibition order than they had to order punishment in excess of the statutory minimum," said Mr. Justice Kennedy in a judgment delivered this morning at the Supreme Court, quashing a prohibition order issued against John Laurenson.

Last April Laurenson was charged at the Whakatane Magistrate's Court, before Messrs. G. A. Brabant and W. M. Smallfield, Justices of the Peace, with drunkenness and with assaulting Edward Jackson at Te Teko. He was convicted and discharged on the charge of drunkenness and fined £5 on the charge of assault, and in addition a % prohibition order was made against him.

His Honor held that the justices exceeded their powers, and said it was irrelevant to consider whether they were actuated by the high motive of doing what, in their opinion, was best for Lau-r-enson, or whether they awarded, as they said, a lesser punishment because they issued a prohibition order. They must not, however excellent their intentions, exceed their powers.

His Honor quashed the order, and allowed the rest of the decision of the justices to stand.