The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-29 00:00:00

WIXBLEDON CAMP IN COURT,

--
In the Court of Queen's Bench on Monday, before
Mr. Justice Hawkins, the cause Clifton v. Lord Bury
and others came .on for hearing. This action was
brought by Major-General Clifton against Lord Bury,
the commanding officer of the Civil Service Volunteer
Rifle Corps, Captain Tytheridge, an officer of the
corps, and against the corps itself, and an injunction
was asked to restrain them from shooting at the 1000
yards and the 600 yards ranges at Wimbledon. The
ground of the action was that the shooting interfered
with the rights of plaintiff in a farm at Wimbledon,
called Newlands, which land he held under lease from
the Duke of Cambridge for 16 years from May, 1879.
The action was commenced in 1880, and it came on
for trial before Mr. Justice Hawkins in 1881. At
that time, however, there was good reason to suppose
that the Kingston and London Railway Company
would take the land, and thus render further litiga-
tion unnecessary, and therefore the matter stood
over, but since then the Railway Company had
allowed their Act to lapse, and it had become neces-
sary to have the matter decided. Mr. Justice
Hawkins now gave judgment. He said that the
Wimbledon and Putney Commons Act of 1871
vested the Commons in the Conservators for public
and local use, and required them to let certain rifle
ranges be used by the defendants' and other corps.
The defendants' corps, consequently, had used the
ranges, and it was admitted that from the 600 yards
target splashes and splinters of bullets fell on to the
plaintiff's land so as to interfere with the ordinary
use of the farm; and as to the 1000 yards range, that
the bullets traversed over the plaintiff's land, but at a
considerable height above it. These things formed
the substance of the plaintiff's complaint. The de-
fendants said that the Conservators of the Commons
having under their Act of 1871 granted the corps the
right to use the ranges, they had a legal right to do
what they had done. It was further said that the de-
fendants, Lord Bury and Captssin Tytheridge, were
not personally responsible for what had been done,
they not having themselves fired at the targets or
directed anybody else to fire at them. He (Mr. Justice
Hawkins) was of opinion that no statutory pri-
vilege existed, because the Act gave the Con-
servators power to deal only with the Commons,
and gave them no right whatever over other
land. He had no doubt that the falling of splinters
and splashes of bullets from the 600 yards target con-
stituted a trespass of an unjustifiable character upon
the plaintiff's land. As to the 1000 yards range, the
bullets passing above the plaintiff's land was not
strictly a trespass, but it constituted such a grievance
as would give a cause of action. The flight of the
bullets was not unaccompanied with risk, and might
reasonably cause alarm. Therefore, the plaintiff, in
his opinion, had not only a right of action, but he wrts
bound to bring the action, as Lord Bury claimed fur
the volunteers a statutory privilege; and it was to try
their rights to this that the action was brought. The
question of the liability of the several defendants was
one of a little more difficulty. He thought that
the contention was right that the corps itself was not
a corporate body that could be sued in this way, and
all the property that they possessed was, under the
Volunteers Act, vestod in their commanding officer.
Lord Bury and Captain Tytheridge, however, were
capable of being sued for the wrongful act said to have
beon done by the corps. Lord Bury was commanding
officer of the corps, and in a letter he admitted that he
was a party to claiming and exercising the right.
Captain Tytheridge, in answering ceitain interroga-
tories, admitted that in 1877-78 he frequently himself
used the ranges, and was present when the corps did
so. There was also evidence to a similar effect as to
what took place in 1879. They also claimed to have
a statutory privilege to do this; but in his (Mr.
Justice Hawkins's) opinion no such statutory privilege
existed. There would, therefore, under the circum-
stances, be judgment for the plaintiff against Lord
Bury and Captain Tytheridge, damages 40s. There
would be no judgment against the corps as they were
not a corporate body, but he should not allow them
the costs of their defence. There would be an in-
junction against all the defendants to prevent the
further use of the 1000 yards range in such a manner
as to cause bullets to traverse over the land of tbis
plaintiff, and as to the 600 yards range, the injunction
would be to prevent the use of it in snob a way that
the splashes and splinters of the bullets should fall
upon the plaintiff's land. Judgment for the plaintiff.

An inquest has been held at Shrewsbury on the
body of Dr. Charles Reginald Blakiston, assistant house.
surgeon at the Salop Infirmary, who died in that in-
stitution from a gunshot wound received on Thursday
week while out rabbit shooting. Dr. Harries wallower.
ing his gun to half-cock when the trigger slipped, and,
at the same moment, deceased stepped out from the
gorse in front of it and was shot as stated. A verdict
of "Accidental death" was returned.

On Saturday afternoon at Northampton, in the pre—
sence of a large assembly of town and county ladies and
gentlemen, the Hon. 0. R. Spencer and Mrs. Spencer
were presented, the former with a magnificent antique
silver gilt rosewater bowl and ewer, and the latter with
a ruby and diamond bracelet, subscribed for by upwards
a 900 of his constituents and friends on the occasion
of the hon. member's recent marriage. Accompanying
the gifts was an address, in which special reference
was made to the hon. gentleman's great assistance to
the cause of Liberalism in Northamptonshire.

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