The Coroners Act (Chapter 32) is a separate statute, but it borrows the District Court’s magistrates and its committal procedure. When a magistrate sits as a Coroner, the courtroom is the same, the address is “Sir” or “Madam” rather than “Your Worship”, and the task is inquiry, not adjudication.
Who is a Coroner
The Judicial and Legal Services Commission may by notice in the National Gazette appoint a person to be a Coroner and specify the province or provinces within which he has jurisdiction. District Officers are Coroners by virtue of office throughout the country. An inquest shall be held by a Coroner sitting alone.
The Magistrates’ Manual records that District Court magistrates are frequently appointed as Coroners for the provinces in which they sit. Section 6 gives a Coroner the powers of the office of Coroner in England, subject to the Act. The police investigate and report to the Coroner, and the “officer assisting the Coroner” at an inquest is often a police prosecutor.
Which deaths
A Coroner has jurisdiction to inquire into the manner and cause of the death of a person who (a) was killed; (b) was drowned; (c) died a sudden death of which the cause is unknown; (d) died under suspicious or unusual circumstances; (e) died under an anaesthetic in an operation; (f) died with no medical certificate as to cause; (g) died within a year and a day of an accident that caused the death; (h) died in a corrective institution, rural lock-up or police lock-up, or while a prisoner or in custody; (i) died in a mental hospital in circumstances requiring an inquest; (j) died in circumstances the Principal Legal Adviser considers should be ascertained; (k) died not having been attended by a medical practitioner within three months.
Section 7(2) requires inquiry without delay. Section 7(3) bars an inquest more than twelve months after the death unless the Principal Legal Adviser orders otherwise. Section 17 gives a parallel jurisdiction over fires, and section 20 over missing persons not found within six months of the report.
Stage one: deciding whether to hold an inquest
On receiving reports from doctors, police and the public under sections 8 and 9, the Coroner may ask the police for further inquiries, direct a post-mortem under section 14(4), or issue a warrant for exhumation under section 11 where there is grave suspicion. If he considers that no good purpose would be served by an inquest, section 7(4) lets him forward a certificate of reasons, with the reports, to the Principal Legal Adviser and the Commissioner of Police. Otherwise he holds an inquest. The Manual stresses that the decision is a judicial act made on the evidence and in good faith. Section 21 lets the Principal Legal Adviser direct an inquest, and lets the Commissioner of Police, a Superintendent or a close relative request one; a refusal requires written reasons.
Stage two: the inquest
Subject to this Act, a Coroner has, for the purposes of an inquest, all the powers conferred on a Magistrate by the District Courts Act in respect of the preliminary hearing of an indictable offence, and the provisions of that Act relating to such proceedings apply, with necessary modifications, to inquests.
So the Coroner summons witnesses under sections 25 and 26, takes signed depositions under section 23, sits in open court, and may punish contempt under section 28. Section 10 requires him to examine on oath everyone he thinks fit, everyone who tenders evidence and everyone able to give relevant evidence, then to certify the identity of the deceased, how, when and where death occurred, and any person suspected of wilful murder, murder or manslaughter.
An inquest is an investigation conducted from the point of view of society, the last survival of the inquisitorial system; it is not a procedure involving “parties”. An interested person has no right to be heard but may be granted leave to appear, no right to ask questions but may be granted leave to ask specified questions, and no right to address at the close. The Coroner’s discretion is essential to the working of the system.
— National Court, PGNC 7 (1981)
In Perera a newspaper published what it claimed were the findings sixteen days early, and the National Court made absolute an order of prohibition because the purpose of the inquest had been frustrated.
When the finding names a person
Where a Coroner’s inquisition charges a person with wilful murder, murder, manslaughter or arson, the Coroner shall read the charge to the person, give the caution in the words the section sets out, record any answer, issue a warrant and commit the person for trial, and bind over the witnesses to appear at the National Court. For manslaughter or arson the Coroner may grant bail. The inquisition, depositions and recognizances go to the Registrar of the National Court.
Here the inquiry turns into a committal, and the depositions are admissible at trial under section 23(3). In practice most homicide committals proceed under Part VI of the District Courts Act on a police information; see committal hearings. A death in custody under section 7(1)(h) is the case most likely to reach an inquest, and the finding may ground a civil claim under Constitution sections 57 and 58 as well as a prosecution.
Afterwards
Section 34 requires an abstract of the proceedings, findings and costs to go to the Principal Legal Adviser, and section 8 requires notice to the Registrar-General so the death can be registered. Section 21 allows an inquest to be reopened. Findings are not a conviction and bind no one, but are subject to National Court review under Constitution section 155(3), as Perera shows.
Section references are to the consolidated Coroners Act (Chapter 32) on PacLII; check for any later amendment or replacement.
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the District Courts Act (Chapter 40) and check for later amendments. The Act is not on PacLII; the figures and time limits quoted in this series come from the consolidation to No 8 of 2000, and the District Courts (Amendment) Act 2009 changes some of them once it is brought into operation. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.