Winsor v Boaden [1953] HCA 46

Cons/Dist_ Cons

Folens Walker (1996 al

Muni! SACHIN 387

90 C.L.R.] OF AUSTRALIA. 345

(HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

WINSOR AND OTHERS 5 : : 3 APPELLANTS ; RESPONDENTS, AND BOADEN RESPONDENT. APPLICANT,

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Railways (N.S.W.)—Employees—* Imprisonment for any term of or exceeding H.C. or A. six months "—Vacation of office—Statutory provision destroying accrued rights 1953, —Method of construction —* Sentence" —Government Railways Act 1912-1951 = (N.S.W.) (No. 30 of 1912—No. 15 of 1951), s. 80. Sypyey,

: ee Aug. 19. The Government Railways Act 1912-1951 (N.S.W.), s. 80 provides, inter

alia, that if any officer is convicted of any felony or is sentenced to imprison- Dizon Ca, a

ment for any term of or exceeding six months he shall be deemed to have _Fullagar, itto an vacated his office. The respondent was convicted by a court of petty sessions Taylor JJ.

in respect of three offences, and was sentenced to imprisonment for three

months on each charge. In respect of the third charge, the imprisonment was to "commence at the expiration of the imprisonment " for the first. offence .

Held, that the respondent had not been sentenced to imprisonment for any term of or exceeding six months.

It is a principle of construction that a statutory provision which destroys accrued rights is not to be given a wider or more ample operation than the literal, natural or grammatical meaning of the words conveys unless the context or subject matter so demands.

The word "sentence" connotes a judicial judgment or pronouncement fixing a term of imprisonment. A term of imprisonment is the period fixed by the judgment as the punishment for the offence.

Decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Full Court): Bx parte Boaden; Re Winsor (1953) 70 W.N. (N.S.W.) 152, affirmed.