CHATTELS FORFEITED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 August 1932, Page 10

CHATTELS FORFEITED

INSTRUMENT OF DEATH THE LAW IN THE OLD DAYS Apropos of the recent comment from the Supreme Court bench in a case where there had been a killing, it is of interest to know that in bygone years ft chattel found to have caused the death of any person was forfeited to the Crown. • Dealing with this subject in his book on the Crimes Act, 1903, Professor Harrow sets out that the old law was that, any chattel found by a jury to have been the immediate cause of the death of a person whether by accident or by design was a dcodand (to be ■given to God), and "'as forfeited to the Crown to be devoted to pious uses. For example, if a man wore run over by a cart and killed, the cart was forfeited as a dcodand; so also if a tree ’ fell upon a man, or a horse threw his

rider and the man were killed, or if an ox gored a- man and killed him, or if a person fell from a boat and was drowned. The. chattel was valued by the coroner’s jury, and the township vhero the death occurred was hold responsible to the officers of the Crown for the value. Deodands were abolished in 1846. Reference is made iri I lie book to ari interesting case illustrating the old law as to deodands, which was decided in 1388. In a tin mine in Cornwall a mass of earth fell upon a man and killed him. In the. belief that the whole mine should he forfeited the King (Richaud II.) gave it to two of the officers of his household. The inquest had found that the death was caused by the falling of a certain mass of ’earth. “This matter was a long time debated between the Sergeants arid the Justices and apprentices as well, and at the last- if was decided that the grant should be repealed and that untiling should be forfeited except the mass of earth that fell.”

Operation of the law as to deodands in modern times would mean that the Stato would probably have a number of motor-cars on its hands.