The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-04-05 00:00:00

SHERIFFS COURT, oottcHEsTEn.
W EON LSDAY.

(Sclera Ir. lJuder•Sheriff Cuumna and a Special
Jury.)

MATIMESON r. TIII BMIDPORT RAILWAY COMPANY.

This was an inquisiti in under a writ from the
Court of Exchequer to sowertain the extent and value
44 the property belonging to the Bridport Railway
Company. defembuits in an action brotellit by Mr.
Kenneth Mathieson, contractor, who bad obtained a
verdict against the Company for £3,:tir2 14s. NI. for
work done. The pnweedings was to enable Mr.
Mathieson to take possession of the Company's line
and grssls and chattels in satisfaction of the debt.
Mr. Brady (Brady and Scott. London) appeared
for Mr. Mathieson ; Mr. Flight for the Bridport
Railway Company ; and Mr. Pearse (Maples, Pcarse,
and Maples. London) for the Great Western Com-
pany, which carries on the Bridport Railway under
a working agreement.
Evidence was then entered into as to the property
hell by the Bridport Company. The first witness
! called was Mr. Flight, the secretary to the company,
who sall that the !any owned the hue from
Maiden Newton to Brirlport, legally or equitably, but
subject to certain mortgages. rho land, with COM •
pensation, had cost more than £lO,OOO, which he
considered much more than the Talkie of the land,
"landowners were so hard upon railway people."
lie could fon') no estimate of the value of the land
now, as land, but taking it as a railway line, he
thought it was worth .4.3,000 or £4,000 a year, if
worked. The only goods and chattels belonging to
the company were two clocks—one at Bridport sta-
tion and one at Powerstock station ; all the rest
of the plant belonged to the Great Western Com-
pany.
Mr. Under• Sheriff Coombs, in summing up, said
that the only chattels the defendants appeared to
possma were two clocks, except the rails and sleepers,
winch the plaintiff had argued should be treated as
chattels, he (the Under• Sheriff) was disposed to think
that the rails and sleepers were not chattels but fix•
tures, and therefore that they could not be taken
under a writ of dryil. But even supposing that he

..
was wrong in that opinion, and assuming that the
rails and sleepers were chattels, then his opinion was
that they were not in the possession of the Bridport
Iftilway Company, but in the possession of the flreat
Western Railway Company, however they might
have acquired such possession. With respect to the
land he could not see anything in the mortgages put
in which affected the land; they only affected
the tolls. He should, therefore, direct the jury to
find that it had been sufficiently proved that the
Bridport Railway Company were seized of the land
from Maiden Newton to Bridport.
The jury, after some consultation, found a verdict
to the effect that, the Bridpoit Company were pos.
seined as owners of certain chattels, to wit, the rails
laid down on klcDonnel's patent from Maiden New-
ton to Bridport, amounting in value to £2,000; and
that the Company were also seized and pone/sod of
the land on which the railway runs.
The effect of the verdict will be to enable Mr.
Mathitsion to obtain complete possession of the Brid-
port Railway.
[lt is stated by our Bridport contemporary "that
the proceedings thus taken against the Company are
by no means of a conclusive or fatal character. As a
set-off against this discouraging occurrence, we are
glad to he able to state that the traffic on the line—
the goods traffic especially—is heavier than has been
known ; thus, after the removal of present difficulties,
opening up to the Company better prospects than
ever."]