Rex V. Ivan Humphrey Dixon (1939)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890—(Validity of Section 2(2) of Appeal Protectorate Ordinance (1933) —Powers of Legislative Council from coviction byof Sierra Leone under Sierra Leone Protectorate Order in Council, Circuit1924.

Facts

The appellant was convicted of the offence of larceny by a Public Servant by the Circuit Court sitting at Port Loko. It was argued that, as Port Loko is part of the Colony of Sierra Leone, the Supreme Court alone had jurisdiction to try an offence committed there. It was argued that section 2 (2) of the Protectorate Ordinance (1933) was ultra vim in that it purported to treat portion of the Colony as Protectorate. It was also argued that as the title of this Ordinance referred only to the Protectorate, the sections concerning the Colony were null and void as they contravened Art. XV (3) of the Protectorate of Sierra Leone Order in Council dated the 24th of January, 1924, which provided that ” no clause is to be inserted in or annexed to any Ordinance which shall be foreign to what the title of such Ordinance imports 

Held

As Art. 2 of the Order in Council established one and the same Legislative Council for both Colony and Protectorate, it was open to that Council, by Art. 42, to pass an Ordinance which would apply both to Colony and Protectorate.

Held Further : That the technical transgression of Art. XV (3) of the Royal Instructions did not render the Protectorate Ordinance (1933) null and void. Damodhar Gordilan versus Deoram Kanji (I App. Cases 332) quoted and distinguished.

Appeal Dismissed.