The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-23 00:00:00

AN INTERESTING CASE.

Intim Vice-Chancellors' Courts, the cause of "The Attorney-
neral v. the Mayor, Aldermen, slut Burgeseea ef the
borough of Batiey and others," which wes heard on the 20th
alt, on demurer, came before the Court en a motion on
behalf of the Attorney-Central and relators for au iujunc-
then.
The object of the suit was, as may be remembered,
to restrain the Mayor, aldermen, and bunzesses of the
borough of Batley from purchasing a chain and badge
for the Mayor out of the borough rates. From the evi-
dence it appeared that the General Purposes Committee
of the borough had on the 21st of November pa.ssed a re-
solution to suggest to the Town Council the necessity of
providing a gold chain for the Mayor, and recom-
mended that one should be purchased at a cost not
exceeding £2OO. Designs were after wards submitted
and approved, and at a meeting held on the 23rd of
December a design for the chain and badge was
selected. The chain was to be 48 inches in length, to
weigh 30 ounces, the quality to be 18 carat gold, and
the cost rzoo. The emblems on the chaiii were to
be,--centre, a hale of wool, or shoddy; on the
right a sheaf of wheat, and a fleece on the left.
It was further determined that the names of the
past and present mayors, with their years of office,
should be engraved thereon, as also should the names
of future mayors as they served the office. Several
ratepayers, who objected to the purchase being made
out of the rates, held a meeting, at which the pro-
posal was condemned, and afterwards sent a deputa-
tion to protest against the resolution. In the Town
Council the question was formally put and carried that
the chain should be purchased, 11 voting in favour of
and eight against the resolution. The dissentients
then filed a bill in the Court of Chancery to restrain
the purchase as a misapplication of the rates. The
case WM now heard on a motion for a interim injunc-
t on.
The arguments principally turned on the Municipal
Corporation Act (5 and 6 Will. IV., cap. 761, which,
in sec. 92, enacts that all corporate property should
be brought within the borough fund, and then enacts
how the money shall be applied; first, to pay-
ment of debts contracted previouely to the passing
of the Act, then to the payment of the salaries of
the borough officials, the costs of prosecutions, the
maintenance of the borough gaol, and the payment
of constables. The statute then goes on to say, "Acid
of all other expenses not herein otherwise provided for,
which shall be necessarily incurred in carrying into
effect the provisions of this Act, and in cage the borough
fund shall be more than sufficient for the purpose afore
said, the surplus thereof shall be applied under the
direction of the Council for the public benefit of the
inhabitants and improvement of the borough.
Mr. Greene, Q.C., and Mr. W. Barber now moved
or an interim injunction to restrain the Mayor,
aldermen, and burgesses, their council, treasurer,
officers, and agents, from purchasing, or otherwise
providing out of the borough or district rates, or out
of any other rates levied or to be levied for public
purposes within the borough, the chain and badge in
question, or any similar or other decoration for the
personal use or adornment of the Mayor for the time
being of the borough.
Mr. Karelake, Q.C., and Mr. Ince, in the first place,
took a preliminary objection to the case being brought
before the Court of Chancery, as they contended that
the proper tribunal was the Court of Queen's Bench,
and the proper remedy a writ of certiorari. The case
was but a trumpery one, although, if it were
argued out, that and other points of great nicety
would have to be decided. On the construction of
the Act they contended that it was a charge that ought
properly to be paid out of the rates, a chain and
badge being so ordinary a badge of a Mayor's office
that it came to be regarded as essential to its dignity.
In fact, if the Mayor of Batley were not provided with
one and there were any meeting of Mayors on any
public occasions, he would find himself the only Mayor
without a chain.
Mr. Greene: Not quite. Have you inquired of the
Mayor of Yeovil?
Mr. Kerslake. —No, I have not, but I have no doubt
he has one. For lam quite sure that no borough in
the western counties would have the meanness to have
its Mayor unadorned.
The Vice-Chancellor, without calling for a reply,
said the borough fund was no doubt a trust fund, held
by the Corporation upon a, public trmt, which
was not a charitable one, and the Legislature had
provided that in certain cases of abuse there should
he a particular remedy by writ of certiorari.
The question before the Court, however, was whether
in this particular case it ought or ought not to
grant an injunction. It was said that the sum in dis-
pute was £2OO, was no small SR to he beneath the at-
tention of the Court, but it would he a matter of con-
siderable regret if that were so. That sum would have
to be raised by a number of small payments con-
tributed by a number of persons of various positions in
the social scale, and varying also in their pecuniary
means ; and it was the duty of the Court to see that
money so contributed %VFW not wantonly spent or wasted.
But it was contended that the Court of Queen's Bench
was the proper tribunal and could more speedily and
effectually deal with the matter. This Court was, how-
ver, quite as competent to deal with the matter as a
Court of Law, and if so, he should certainly not send
the case to be tried over again before another Court.
Then came the question whether the proposed ex-
penditure upon the chain and badge was within the
terms of the Municipal Corporation Act. Giving the
most liberal interim etation to the statute, and con-
struing it so as to allow the corporation acting
as trustee every possible charge and every reason-
able and justifiable payment in reference to the
due discharge of their duties, and :slowing them
everything which could be 'reasonably" included
in their costs, charges, and expenses under the
Act, he still found it impossible to hold that the
expenditure was authorised by or could be brought
within the Act. Indeed, this particular charge might
reasonably be called "childish and foolish." Forms
and ceremonies, no doubt, had their uses; some
persons might be and were, perhaps, more impressed
by them than others; some people might even pay
more respect to a Mayor if he never appeared in public
except in a gilt coach with six horses. But to suppose
that any reasonable human being would pay more re-
spect to a Mayor bccause he wore a gold chain, a chain
which was bought for him out of the rates, a chain
for which he bad not even paid himself, and which
was not even, therefore, a proof of his own personal
solvency, seas a supposition beyond the possibility of
belief. The Court had, in fact, throughout the case
had great difficulty in regarding the case as a serious
one ; but as it was, the amount in dispute, though
small, was no objection to the interference of the
Court. and the injunction must certamly be granted to
restrain the Corporation from applying the borough
funds to the purchase.