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CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - LONG TITLE

An Act for amending the Law relating to Conspiracy, and to the
Protection of Property, and for other purposes.{1}
[13th August 1875]
Short title.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 1

1. This Act may be cited as "The Conspiracy, and Protection of
Property Act, 1875."

S.2 rep. by SLR 1893 (No.2)

Amendment of law as to conspiracy in trade disputes.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 3

3. An agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or
procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a
trade dispute... shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such
act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime.

....

Nothing in this section shall exempt from punishment any persons
guilty of a conspiracy for which a punishment is awarded by any
Act of Parliament.

Nothing in this section shall affect the law relating to riot,
unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, or sedition, or any offence
against the State or the Sovereign.

A crime for the purposes of this section means an offence
punishable on indictment, or an offence which is punishable on
summary conviction, and for the commission of which the offender is
liable under the statute making the offence punishable to be
imprisoned either absolutely or at the discretion of the court as
an alternative for some other punishment.

Where a person is convicted of any such agreement or combination as
aforesaid to do or procure to be done an act which is punishable
only on summary conviction, and is sentenced to imprisonment, the
imprisonment shall not exceed three months, or such longer time, if
any, as may have been prescribed by the statute for the punishment
of the said act when committed by one person.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 4
Breach of contract by persons employed in supply of gas or water.

4. Where a person employed by a municipal authority or by any
company or contractor upon whom is imposed by Act of Parliament the
duty, or who have otherwise assumed the duty of supplying any city,
borough, town or place, or any part thereof, with gas or water,
wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service with that
authority or company or contractor, knowing or having reasonable
cause to believe that the probable consequences of his so doing,
either alone or in combination with others, will be to deprive the
inhabitants of that city, borough, town, place, or part, wholly or
to a great extent of their supply of gas or water, he shall on
conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on
indictment as herein-after mentioned, be liable either to pay a
penalty not exceeding twenty pounds or to be imprisoned for a term
not exceeding three months,....

Every such municipal authority, company, or contractor as is
mentioned in this section shall cause to be posted up, at the
gasworks or waterworks, as the case may be, belonging to such
authority or company or contractor, a printed copy of this section
in some conspicuous place where the same may be conveniently read
by the persons employed, and as often as such copy becomes defaced,
obliterated or destroyed, shall cause it to be renewed with all
reasonable despatch.

If any municipal authority or company or contractor make default in
complying with the provisions of this section in relation to such
notice as aforesaid, they or he shall incur on summary conviction a
penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during which such
default continues, and every person who unlawfully injures, defaces,
or covers up any notice so posted up as aforesaid in pursuance of
this Act, shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not
exceeding [#2].

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 5
Breach of contract involving injury to persons or property.

5. Where any person wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of
service or of hiring, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe
that the probable consequences of his so doing, either alone or in
combination with others, will be to endanger human life, or cause
serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property whether real
or personal to destruction or serious injury, he shall on conviction
thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as
herein-after mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not
exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not
exceeding three months,....

....

Penalty for neglect by master to provide food, clothing, &c. for
servant or apprentice.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 6

6. Where a master, being legally liable to provide for his servant
or apprentice necessary food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging,
wilfully and without lawful excuse refuses or neglects to provide
the same, whereby the health of the servant or apprentice is or is
likely to be seriously or permanently injured, he shall on summary
conviction be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty
pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six
months,....

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 7
Penalty for intimidation or annoyance by violence or otherwise.

7. Every person who, with a view to compel any other person to
abstain from doing or to do any act which such other person has a
legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and without
legal authority

(1)Uses violence to or intimidates such other person or his wife or
children, or injures his property; or

(2)Persistently follows such other person about from place to place;
or

(3)Hides any tools, clothes, or other property owned or used by
such other person, or deprives him of or hinders him in the use
thereof; or

(4)Watches or besets the house or other place where such other
person resides, or works, or carries on business, or happens to be,
or the approach to such house or place; or

(5)Follows such other person with two or more other persons in a
disorderly manner in or through any street or road,

....

Reduction of penalties.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 8

8. Where in any Act relating to employers or workmen a pecuniary
penalty is imposed in respect of any offence under such Act, and
no power is given to reduce such penalty, the justices or court
having jurisdiction in respect of such offence may, if they think
it just so to do, impose by way of penalty in respect of such
offence any sum not less than one-fourth of the penalty imposed by
such Act.

Power for offender under this Act to be tried on indictment and
not by court of summary jurisdiction.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 9

9. Where a person is accused before a court of summary jurisdiction
of any offence made punishable by this Act, and for which a
penalty amounting to twenty pounds, or imprisonment, is imposed, the
accused may, on appealing before the court of summary jurisdiction,
declare that he objects to being tried for such offence by a court
of summary jurisdiction, and thereupon the court of summary
jurisdiction may deal with the case in all respects as if the
accused were charged with an indictable offence and not an offence
punishable on summary conviction, and the offence may be prosecuted
on indictment accordingly.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 10
Proceedings before a court of summary jurisdiction.

10. Every offence under this Act which is made punishable on
conviction by a court of summary jurisdiction or on summary
conviction, and every penalty under this Act recoverable on summary
conviction, may be prosecuted and recovered in manner provided by
the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 11
Regulations as to evidence.

11. Provided, that upon the hearing and determining of any
indictment or information under sections four, five, and six of this
Act, the respective parties to the contract of service, their
husbands or wives, shall be deemed and considered as competent
witnesses.

S.12 rep. by SLR (NI) 1954

Definition of "public company."

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 14

14....

Any municipal authority or company or contractor who has obtained
authority by or in pursuance of any general or local Act of
Parliament to supply the streets of any city, borough, town or
place, or of any part thereof, with gas, or which is required by
or in pursuance of any general or local Act of Parliament to
supply water on demand to the inhabitants of any city, borough,
town, or place, or any part thereof, shall for the purposes of
this Act be deemed to be a municipal authority or company or
contractor upon whom is imposed by Act of Parliament the duty of
supplying such city, borough, town or place, or part thereof, with
gas or water.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 15
Definition of ""maliciously.''

15. The word "maliciously" used in reference to any offence under
this Act shall be construed in the same manner as it is required
by the fifty-eighth section of the Malicious Damage Act, 1861, to
be construed in reference to any offence committed under such
last-mentioned Act.

Saving as to seamen.

Enforcement or order for wages.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 17

17.... Any order for wages or further sum of compensation in
addition to wages made in pursuance of section sixteen of the
Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Act, 1851, may be enforced in like
manner as if it were an order made by a court of summary
jurisdiction in pursuance of the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875,
and not otherwise....

Application to Ireland.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 - SECT 21

21. This Act shall extend to Ireland, with the modifications
following; that is to say,

Definitions rep. by SLR 1893; 1962 c.30 s.30(2)(d) sch.4 Pt.IV

The expression "municipal authority" shall be construed to mean the
town council of any borough for the time being subject to the
Municipal Corporation (Ireland) Act, 1840, and any commissioners
invested by any general or local Act of Parliament, with power of
improving, cleansing, lighting, or paving any town or township.