AYIFOR v. OSABUTEY & ORS.

JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.

(His lordship stated the history of the case, and proceeded:—)

The defendants argue that the order in a criminal court for payment of compensation out of the fine imposed, taken with plaintiff’s refusal to accept it, is in law a bar to the plaintiff’s claim for damages. This argument is misconceived.

The Criminal Procedure Code, Sec. 143 (1) (b), empowers a criminal court, upon conviction of a person charged with an offence, to order the whole or part of any fine recovered to be applied:—

“in the payment to any person of compensation for any loss or injury caused by the offence when substantial compensation is in the opinion of the Court recoverable by civil suit.”

And sub-section 3 provides as follows:—

“At the time of awarding compensation in any subsequent civil suit relating to the same matter, the Court shall take into account any sum paid or recovered as compensation under this section.” These provisions are quite different from the provisions for compensation provided in Sec. 72 (2) and (3) of the Criminal Code, which are as follows:

“(2) Any person who is convicted of a summary offence punishable under this Code, or under any other law, may be adjudged by the Court to make compensation, not exceeding twenty-five pounds, to any person injured by his offence.

“(3) Any such compensation may be either in addition to or in substitution for any other punishment.”

And Sec. 73 of the Criminal Code provides:—

“where any person who is injured by any offence punishable under this Code, or under any other statute, receives compensation for such injury under the order of the Court, or where the offender, having been ordered to make such compensation suffers imprisonment for non-payment thereof, the receipt of such compensation or the undergoing of such imprisonment, as the case may be, shall be a bar to any action for the same injury; but, except as aforesaid, nothing in this Code shall bar the action of any person in respect of any injury sustained by him or his property.”

[p.154]

Thus, compensation ordered under Section 72 of the Criminal Code and recovered by a complainant, or the offender’s imprisonment for non-payment of such compensation, operates as a bar to a civil action for the same injury. But compensation ordered under Section 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code, to be paid out of a fine, whether recovered or not, does not operate as a bar. All that happens in the latter case is that a civil court must take that c