Cantun v Clarke

• Jurisdiction: Belize
• Court: Supreme Court (Belize)
• Judge: Barrington-Jones
• Judgment Date: 30 May 1980
• Docket Number: Inferior Appeal No. 5 of 1978
• Date: 30 May 1980

Supreme Court

Barrington-Jones, J.

Inferior Appeal No. 5 of 1978

Cantun

and

Clarke

Mr. J.C. Gray for the appellant

Mr. H. Elrington for the respondent

Criminal law - Appeal against conviction — Trial judge made no finding that the appellant was in charge of the vehicle at the relevant time — Conviction quashed — New trial ordered.

Barrington-Jones

1 The appellant was convicted of drunken driving contrary to section 74 of the Road and traffic Ordinance on the 10th February, 1978 by the resident magistrate for the Corozal Judicial District. The appellant now appeals against conviction and sentence.

2 Mr. Gray submitted that the basis of the appeal in this case was that the facts were such that the lower court ought not to have convicted the appellant. Mr. Gray took issue with the penultimate paragraph of the learned magistrate's reasons for decision where he said:–

“These contradictions in their statements and the prosecution's witnesses statements that the defendant was found behind the driver's wheel when they approached the truck lead to the inference that the defendant was driving or was in charge of the truck at the material time.”

3 Mr. Gray felt that for the learned magistrate to draw such inferences from the facts made the conviction unsatisfactory and he said that such an inference might equally be consistent with innocence.

4 I must say that I find it difficult to understand why the learned resident magistrate felt constrained to find that there was only an inference that the appellant was driving or was in charge of the truck at the material time; for if one looks at the evidence of the...