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R. v. Neverson

[1992] 1 SCR 1014 Court SCC Decision date 1992-04-30 Docket 22587 English

PartiesSeptimus Neverson Appellant·Her Majesty The Queen Respondent

Judges La Forest, Gérard V.; L'Heureux-Dubé, Claire; Gonthier, Charles Doherty; Cory, Peter deCarteret; Stevenson, William

Decision 3–1–1 Majority (3) · La Forest J. (1) · Stevenson J. (1)

On appeal from Quebec

Subjects Criminal law

Contents

Majority

The judgment of the Court was delivered orally by

La Forest J.

La Forest J. ‑‑ It will not be necessary to hear from you Mr. Chénier. The Court is ready to hand down judgment. The judgment will be pronounced by Mr. Justice Stevenson.

Stevenson J.

Stevenson J. ‑‑ This is an appeal, as of right, from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal ordering a new trial when the accused, appellant, had been acquitted at trial by a jury.
Before us, counsel for the appellant quite properly and fairly conceded that the dissenting member of the Court of Appeal had based her disagreement with the majority of that court on one single question: accepting that the trial judge erred, had the Crown, after demonstrating the error, also met the burden of showing that on a new trial the verdict would not necessarily have been the same. That test was recently discussed in R. v. Morin, [1988] 2 S.C.R. 345, at p. 374. We are in agreement with the conclusions of McCarthy and Nichols JJ.A. on that question. The judgment ordering a new trial stands.
The appeal is dismissed.
Judgment accordingly.
Solicitor for the appellant: Ivan Lerner, Montréal.
Solicitor for the respondent: Normand J. Chénier, Montréal.

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