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CONTEMPT OF COURT
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CONTEMPT OF See also:COURT , in See also:English See also:law, any disobedience or disrespect to the authority or privileges of a legislative See also:body, or interference with the See also:administration of a court of See also:justice.
r. The High Court of See also:Parliament. Each of the two houses of Parliament has by the law and See also:custom of parliament See also:power to protect its freedom, dignity and authority against insult, disregard or violence by resort to its own See also:process and not to See also:ordinary courts of law and without having its process interfered with by those courts. The nature and limits of this authority to punish for contempt have been the subject of not infrequent conflict with the courts of law, from the See also:time when See also:Lord See also:Chief Justice See also:Holt threatened to commit the See also:speaker for attempting to stop the trial of See also:Ashby v. See also: It was at one time considered that the privilege of committing for contempt was inherent in every deliberative body invested with authority by the constitution, and consequently that colonial legislative bodies had by the nature of their functions the power to commit for contempt. But in Kielley v. See also:Carson (1843; 4 See also:Moore, P.C. 63) it was held that the power belonged to parliament by ancient usage only and not on the theory above stated, and in each See also:colony it is necessary to inquire how far the colonial legislature has acquired, by See also:order in See also:council or See also:charter or from the imperial legislature, power to punish breach of privilege by imprisonment or committal for contempt. This power has in some cases been given directly, in others by authority to make See also:laws and regulations under sanctions like those enforced by the Houses of the imperial parliament. In the See also:case of Nova See also:Scotia the provincial See also:assembly has power to give itself by See also:statute authority to commit for contempt (See also:Fielding v. See also: Pr., loth ed., 1896; See also:Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, 3rd ed., 1897.) 2. Courts of Justice. The See also:term contempt of court, when used with reference to the courts or persons to whom the exercise of the judicial functions of the See also:crown has been delegated, means insult offered to such court or See also:person by deliberate See also:defiance of its authority, disobedience to its orders, interruption of its proceedings or interference with the due course of justice, or any conduct calculated or tending to bring the authority or administration of the law into disrespect or disregard, or to interfere with or See also:prejudice parties or witnesses during the litigation. The ingenuity of the See also:judges and of those who are concerned to defeat or defy justice have rendered contempt almost Protean in its See also:character. But for See also:practical purposes most, if not all, contempts fall within the See also:classification which follows: (a) Disobedience to the See also:judgment or order of a court commanding the doing or abstaining from a particular See also:act, e.g. an order to execute a See also:conveyance of See also:property or an order on a person in a fiduciary capacity to pay into court See also:trust moneys as to which he is an accounting party. This includes disobedience by the members of a See also:local authority to a See also:mandamus to do some act which they are by law See also:bound to do; and proceedings for contempt have been taken in the case of guardians of the poor who have refused to enforce the See also:Vaccination Acts, e.g. at See also:Keighley and See also:Leicester, and of See also:town councillors who have refused to comply with an order to take specified See also:measures to drain their See also:borough (e.g. See also:Worcester). This process for compelling obedience is in substance a process of See also:civil See also:execution for thebenefit of the injured party rather than a criminal process for punishing the disobedience; and for purposes of See also:appeal orders dealing with these forms of contempt have hitherto been treated as civil proceedings. (b) Disobedience by inferior judges or magistrates to the lawful order of a See also:superior court. Such disobedience, if amounting to wilful misconduct, would usually give ground for amotion or removal from See also:office, or for See also:prosecution or See also:indictment or See also:information for misconduct (Archbold, Criminal See also:Pleading, 147, 23rd ed.). (c) Disobedience or misconduct by executive See also:officers of the law, e.g. sheriffs and their bailiffs or gaolers. The contempt consists in not complying with the terms of writs or warrants sent for execution. For instance, a See also:judge of See also:assize having ordered the court to be cleared on See also:account of some disturbance, the high See also:sheriff issued a See also:placard protesting against " this unlawful proceeding," and " prohibiting his officer from aiding and abetting any See also:attempt to See also:bar out the public from See also:free See also:access to the court." The lord chief justice of See also:England, sitting in the other court, summoned the sheriff before him and fined him 50o for the contempt, and £50o more for persisting in addressing the See also:grand See also:jury in court, after he had been ordered to desist. A sheriff who fails to attend the assizes is liable to severe See also:fine as being in contempt (See also:Oswald, 51). And in See also:Harvey's case (1884, 26 Ch. D. 644) steps were taken to attach a sheriff who had failed to execute a See also:writ of See also:attachment for contempt of court in the mistaken belief that he was not entitled to break open doors to take the person in contempt. The Sheriffs Act '887 enumerates many instances in which misconduct is punishable under that act, but reserves to superior courts of record power to See also:deal with such misconduct as a contempt (s. 29). (d) Misconduct or neglect of See also:duty by subordinate officials of courts of justice, including solicitors. In these cases it is more usual for the superior authorities to remove the offender from office, or for disciplinary proceedings to be instituted by the Law Society. But in the case of an unqualified person assuming to act as a See also:solicitor or in the case of breach of an undertaking given by a solicitor to the court, proceedings for contempt are still taken. (e) Misconduct by parties, jurors or witnesses. Jurors who fail to attend in obedience to a jury See also:summons and witnesses who fail to attend on subpoena are liable to See also:punishment for contempt, and parties, counsel or solicitors who practise a See also:fraud on the court are similarly liable. (f) Contempt in facie curiae. " Some contempts," says BIackstone, " may arise in the See also:face of the court, as by See also:rude and contumelious behaviour, by obstinacy, perverseness or See also:prevarication, by breach of the See also:peace, or any wilful disturbance whatever "; in other words, See also:direct insult to or interference with a sitting court is treated as contempt of the court. It is immaterial whether the offender is juror, party, See also:witness, counsel, solicitor or a stranger to the case at See also:hearing, and occasionally it is found necessary to punish for contempt persons under trial for See also:felony or See also:misdemeanour if by violent See also:language or conduct they interrupt the proceedings at their trial. Judges have even treated as contempt the continuance outside the court-house after warning of a See also:noise sufficient to disturb the proceedings of the court; and in See also:Victoria Chief Justice Higginbotham committed for contempt a builder who persisted after warning in See also:building operations See also:close to the central criminal court in See also:Melbourne, which interfered with the due conduct of the business of the sittings.
(g) Attempts to prevent or interfere with the due course of justice, whether made by a person interested in a particular case or by an outsider. This See also:branch of contempt takes many forms, such as frauds on the court by justices, solicitors or counsel (e.g. by fraudulently circularizing shareholders of a See also:company against which a winding-up See also:petition had been filed), tampering with witnesses by inducing them through threats or persuasion not to attend or to withhold See also:evidence or to commit See also:perjury, threatening judge or jury or attempting to bribe them and the like; and also by " scandalizing the court itself " by abusing
the parties concerned in a pending case, or by creating prejudice against such persons beforetheir cause is heard.
The See also:locus classicus on the subject of contempt by : attacks
on judges is a judgment prepared by See also:Sir Eardley-See also:Wilmot in the
case of an application for an attachment against
Invectives J. See also:Almon in 1765, for See also:publishing a pamphlet libelling against
/edges. the court of See also: The question whether a personal invective against judges should be dealt with brevi manu by the court attacked, or by proceedings at the instance of the See also:attorney-general by information or indictment for a See also:libel on the administration of justice or on the judge attacked, or should be dealt with by a civil See also:action for See also:damages, depends on the nature and occasion of the attack on the judge.
There has at times been a disposition by judges in colonial courts to use the process of the court to punish criticisms on their acts by counsel or parties or even outsiders, which the privy council has been prone to discourage. For instance in. a Nova Scotia case a See also:barrister was suspended from practice for See also:writing to the chief justice of the See also:province a See also:letter See also:relating to a case in which the barrister was suitor. The privy council while considering the letter technically a contempt, held the punishment inappropriate. In See also:Macleod v. St Aubyn (1899, A.C. 549) it was said that proceedings for scandalizing the court itself were obsolete in England. But in 1900 the king's bench See also:division, following the Almon case, summarily punished a scurrilous personal attack on a judge of assize with reference, to his remarks in a concluded case, published immediately after the conclusion of the case (R. v. See also: To impute corruption is said to go beyond the limits of See also:fair See also:criticism. Shortt (Law relating to See also:Works of Literature) states the law to be that the temperate and respectful discussion of judicial determination is not prohibited, but See also:mere invective and abuse, and still more the imputation of false, corrupt and dishonest motives is punishable. In an information granted in 1788 against the See also:corporation of See also:Yarmouth for having entered upon their books an order " stating that the assembly were sensible that Mr W. (against whom an action had been brought for malicious prosecution, and a verdict for £3000returned, which the court refused to disturb) was actuated by motives of public justice, of preserving the rights of the corporation to their See also:admiralty jurisdictions and of supporting the See also:honour and See also:credit of the chief See also:magistrate, " Mr Justice See also:Buller said, " The judge and jury who tried the case, confirmed by the court of See also:common pleas, have said that instead of his having been actuated by motives of public justice, or by any motives which should See also:influence the actions of au honest See also:man, he had been actuated by malice. These opinions are not reconcilable; if the one be right the other must be wrong. It is therefore a direct insinuation that the court had judged wrong in all they have done in this case, and is therefore clearly a libel on the administration of justice." The exact limits of the, power to punish for contempt of court in respect of statements or comments on the action of judges and juries, or with reference to pending proceedings, have been the subject of some controversy, owing to the difficulty of reconciling the claims of the press to See also:liberty and of the public to free discussion of the proceedings of courts of justice with the claims of the judges to due respect and of the parties to litigation that their causes should not be prejudiced before trial by outside interference. As the law now stands it is permissible to publish contemporaneous reports of the proceedings in cases pending in any court (Law of Libel See also:Amendment Act 1888, s. 3), unless the proceedings have taken See also:place in private (in See also:camera), or the court has in the interests of justice prohibited any See also:report until the case is concluded, a course now rarely, if ever, adopted. But it is not permissible to make any comments on a pending case calculated to interfere with the due course of justice in the case, nor to publish statements about the cause or the parties calculated to have that effect. This See also:rule applies even when the case has been tried and the , jury has disagreed if a second trial is in prospect. Applications are frequently made to commit proprietors and editors who comment too freely or who undertake the task of trying in their See also:newspapers a pending Case. The courts are now slow to move unless satisfied that the statements or comments may seriously affect the course of justice, e.g. by reaching the jurors who have to try the case. The difference between pending and decided cases has been frequently recognized by the. courts. What would be a fair comment in a decided case may tend to influence the mind of the judge or the jury in a case waiting to be heard, and will accordingly be punished, as a contempt. In Tichborne v. Mostyn the publisher of a newspaper was held to have committed a contempt by See also:printing in his See also:paper extracts from affidavits in a pending suit, with comments upon them. In the case of R. v. See also:Castro it was held that after a true See also:bill has been found, and the indictment removed into the court of See also:queen's bench, and a See also:day fixed for trial, the case was pending; and it was a contempt of court to address public meetings, alleging that the See also:defendant was not guilty, that there was a See also:conspiracy against the defendant, and that he could not have a fair trial; and the court ordered the parties to See also:answer for their contempt. In the case of the See also:Moat See also:Farm See also:murder (1903) the high court punished as contempt a See also:series of articles published in a newspaper while the preliminary inquiry . was proceeding and before the case went to a jury (R. v. See also:Parker, 1903, 2 K.B. 432). The like course was followed in 1905 in the case of statements made in a Welsh newspaper about a woman awaiting trial for attempted murder (R. v. See also:Davies, 1906, 1 K.B. 32); and in the case of the Weekly See also:Dispatch in 1902 (R. v. Tibbits and Windust, 1 K.B. 77), two journalists were tried on indictment, and held to have been rightly convicted, for conspiring to prevent the course of justice by publishing See also:matter calculated to interfere with the fair trial of persons who were under See also:accusation. In the superior courts the power of committing for See also:con-tempt is inherent in their constitution, has been coeval with their See also:original institution and has been always exercised " courts (Oswald, On Contempt, 3). The high court in which having these courts are merged is the only court which has turisdka general See also:jurisdiction to deal summarily with all forms "00' of contempt. Each division of that court deals with the particular contempts arising with reference to proceedings before the division; but the king's bench division, in the exercise of the supervisory authority inherited from the old court of king's bench as custos morum, also from time to time deals with acts constituting interference with justice in other inferior courts whether of record or not. The nature and limits of this jurisdiction after much discussion have been defined by decisions in 1903 and 1905 in attempts to try by newspapers cases under inquiry by justices or awaiting trial at assizes or See also:quarter sessions. The exercise of this authority in the king's bench division, being in a criminal cause or matter, is not the subject of appeal to any higher court. Inferior courts of record have, as a general rule, power to punish only those contempts which are committed in facie curiae or consist in disobedience to the lawful orders or judgments of the court. For instance, a See also:county court may summarily punish persons who insult the judge or any officer of the court or any juror or witness, or wilfully interrupt the proceedings, or misbehave in the court-house (County Court Act 1888, s. 162), and may also attack persons who having means refuse to comply with an order to pay See also:money; or refuse to comply with an order to deliver up a specific See also:chattel or disobey an See also:injunction. A court of quarter sessions has at common law a like power as to con-tempts in facie curiae and is said to have power to punish its officials for contempt in non-attendance or neglect of duty. Contempt of court is a misdemeanour and is punishable by fine and imprisonment or either at discretion. The offence may Punish- be tried summarily, or may be prosecuted on informameat. tion or on indictment as was done in the case of the Weekly Dispatch already mentioned. The See also:prerogative of See also:pardon extends to all contempts of court which are dealt with by a See also:sentence of clearly punitive character; but it is doubtful whether it extends to committals for disobedience to orders made in aid of the execution of a civil judgment. Contempt is usually dealt with summarily by the court contemned in the case of contempt in facie curiae. The offender may be instantly apprehended and without further See also:proof or examination fined or sent to See also:prison. In the case of other con-tempts the High Court not only can deal with contempts affecting itself, but can also intervene summarily to protect inferior, courts from contempts. This jurisdiction was asserted and exercised in the Moat Farm case (1903) and the South Wales Past case (1905) already mentioned. ' Except in cases of contempt in facie curiae evidence on See also:oath as to the alleged contempt must be laid before the court, and application made for the " committal " or " attachment " of the offender. The See also:differences between the two modes are technical rather than substantial. The See also:procedure for dealing with contempt of court varies somewhat according as the contempt consists in disobeying an order of the High Court made in a civil cause, or consists in interference with the course of justice by persons not See also:present in court nor parties to the cause. In the first class of cases the court proceeds by order of committal or giving leave to issue writ of attachment. In either case the person said to be in contempt must have full See also:notice of the proposed See also:motion and. of the grounds on which he is said to be in contempt; and the rules regulating such proceedings must be strictly complied with (R. v. Tuck, 1906, 2 Ch. 692). In proceedings on the crown See also:side of the king's bench division it is still usual to apply in the first place for a rule nisi for leave to attach the alleged offender who is given an opportunity of explaining, excusing or justifying the incriminated acts. It is essential that before punishment the alleged offender should have had full notice as to the specific offence charged and opportunity of answering to it. The king's bench procedure is that generally used for interference with the due course of criminal justice or disobedience to prerogative writs such as mandamus. An order of committal is an order in execution specifying the nature of the detention to be suffered, or the See also:penalty to be paid. The process of attachment merely brings the accused into court; he is then required to answer on oath interrogatories administeredto him, so that the court may be better informed of the circumstances of the contempt. If he can clear himself on oath he is discharged; if he confesses the court will punish him by fine or imprisonment, or both, at its discretion. But in Very many cases on proper See also:apology and submission, and undertaking not to repeat the contempt, and See also:payment of See also:costs, the court allows the proceedings to drop without proceeding to fine or imprison. From time to time proposals have been made to deprive the superior courts of the power to deal summarily with contempts not committed in facie curiae, and to require proceedings on other charges for contempt to go before a jury. This distinction has already been made in some See also:British colonies, e.g. British See also:Guiana, by an See also:ordinance of 1900 (No. 31). See also:Recent decisions in England have so fully defined the limits of the offence and declared the practice of the courts that it would probably only result in undue See also:licence of the press if the power now carefully and judicially exercised of dealing summarily with journalistic interference with the ordinary course of justice were taken away and the delay involved in submitting the case to a jury were made inevitable. The courts now only act in clear cases, and in cases of doubt can always send the question to a jury. The experience of other countries makes it undesirable to See also:part with the See also:summary remedy so long as it is in the hands of a trusted judicature.
See also:Scotland.—In Scotland. the courts of session and See also:justiciary have, at common law, and exercise the power of punishing contempt committed during a judicial proceeding by censure, fine or imprisonment proprio motu without formal proceedings or a summary complaint. The nature of the offence is there in substance the same as in England (see See also:Petrie, 1889: 7 Rettie Justiciary 3; See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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