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The words of Section 91 (5) are:—"Any house or part of a house so overcrowded
as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates, whether
or not members of the same family." By Section 4 of the same Act it is
provided that "In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context, the following
words and expressions have the meaning hereinafter respectively assigned to
them—that is to say, . . . 'house' includes schools, also factories and other
buildings in which]persons are employed."
By Section 102 it is enacted that "the Local Authority or any of their
officers shall be admitted into any premises for the purpose of examining as
to the existence of any nuisance thereon, at any time . . . between the hours
of nine in the forenoon and six in the afternoon, or, in a case of nuisance
arising in respect of any business, then at any hour when such business is in
progress or is usually carried on. ... If admission to premises for any of the
purposes of this Section is refused, any Justice, on complaint thereof on oath
by any officer of the Local Authority (made after reasonable notice in writing
of the intention to make the same has been given to the person having custody
of the premises), may, by Order under his hand, require the person having
custody of the premises to admit the Local Authority, or their officer, into the
premises during the hours aforesaid, and if no person having custody of the
premises can be found, the Justices shall, on oath made before him of that
fact, by Order under his hand, authorise the Local Authority, or any of their
officers, to enter such premises during the hours aforesaid."
C. A. Russell, K.C., and Humphreys appeared for the Appellants;
Macmorran, K.C., and Daldy for the respondent.
The Court allowed the appeal.
Alverstone, L.C.J., in giving judgment, said the Court of Quarter Sessions
had decided that the Order of the Magistrates was not a proper Order, because
it related to a school, and that school was not, in their opinion, a house or part
of a house so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the
inmates. Now, the interpretation clause of the Act, Section 4, says that
"house" is to include school, and prima facie, when you are dealing with the
matter of niusances, there would not seem to be any reason why there should
not be the same power of inspection with regard to a school kept for the purpose
of boys or girls being received and passing several hours of the day there
for the purpose of their education, just in the same way as power is given to
go into a private house under certain circumstances in a proper case where the
Justice might make the Order for inspection in the private house. Mr. Macmorran
contends that must mean dwelling house in the ordinary sense of the
word, where people sleep, and he fortifies his argument by referring to Section
6, dealing with factories and the overcrowding of a factory, which would otherwise
come within Sub-section (5), and he says that shows that as overcrowding
of a factory is mentioned in Sub-section (6), " house " is limited to a dwelling
house in this Section. I think the answer to that is that, with regard to
factories, the legislature were desirous to bring in other things, and to give a
wider scope to the power of the local authority, and they used the words " not
kept in a cleanly state, or not ventilated," &c.; and then to avoid it being said
that overcrowding was not within the Section, they have to add those words at
the end as to overcrowding. We think, therefore, that the particular point
upon which the Court of Quarter Sessions held the Order was bad was wrong,
and the case must be further dealt with.