The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-26 00:00:00

Rain Intelligence.

HOUSE OF LORDS —YanzaDAY. 1
PeaRPT: Tee LIAM 01,100013.1.04. UM. 910%.4.011111, as.rnwee foam.
SToDDART e. run KIT. Ds. GRANT AND °TRIM.—
Tai. Wittrneos.—bleLl en KRTOCATION.
MS was ea *grid bow ea interlocutor of the Court of
f
Seeds& ia isreesgdommi the main quietist was *Wi
eselelo =waft le be eta tocirminedieg nature
mum by sereehod by
Moe elliele•Eff venal= ofger=ernrslierl,
tbe wither either ireidegs, was ea lbe alb of the first of
them (1828) living avert Mom be, bighead yinder a deed of
separation, by which site, Isom of enrviving him, would
be entitled Ambbaly meleis loom and considerable
soma of miry is the hob. By the second
writing in INT, bee be dead being Mon deed, she ap-
pointed eremite.% nod bermatheismeiona legacies. By a
third, in 1842, puipsral is be tar bot will, she gave
several bequests. Dy a gem* ale porting to be a leat
will, made the roe pig, she conveyed r home and fur-
niture to a Mn. 88eMeft, the appellant, for her life ; and
by • fifth, • trust eseibment, made in 1844, the dispoted of
the same house to the erne poem sod to others for their
lives. A sixth Inetrumiest, she • tenet deed, made in 1844,
reeitisgthat of 1844, contained bequests of pecuniary. l
tee. The seventh instrument, without date, contained •
nomination of caetutors different from those named in the
instrument of 1832. None of the latter deeds contained •
revocation of the former. They were all found afterberdeath
in different places in her home. The Court of Session de-
cided that the two instruments of 1844 and 1845, together
with the seventh, eoustituted a complete will, and that all
the prior writings were revoked by complication.
Sir F. Kelly and Mr. .1. Anderson were for the 'ppd.
last. Mr. Bethel and Mr. Holt were for the respondents.
1-be moments were not concluded at 4 o'clock, when the
house mat., and the further hearing was adjourned to
Monday.

RETIREMENT OT THE WASTER OF TILE ROLLS.
This was the ma sitting of his lordship in the Rolls
Cyan prior to his resignation. And after all the consent
petitions were disposed of, and as the court was about to
161, Nr. Turner, on behalf of the bar, addressed his lord-
ship to the following effect—lle expressed the great regret
it the bar that the state of his lordship's health made it
oeseueery for him to resign the office which he had fur so
many yeses so ably filled, and their sincere hope, that MUNI
retirement which he was about to seek, his health might be
restored, and that be might continue to enjoy many
years of happiness. It was not his intention to enter into a
Meg examination of the manner in which his lordship had
difteharged the duties of his office for years. He should on
the one band be betrayed into flattery which would be
alletssive to his lordship, or on the other should fail ade-
quately to express himself in commendation of it. He
would merely notice the constant endeavours ofhis lordship
to improve the practice of the court and to diminish the
delay and expense of its proceedings. The public and the
bag equally owed him a deep debt of gratitude ; and, on
behalf of the bar, he desired to express their heartfelt
Maier towards him.
His lordship, during the delivery of this 'damn, was
'web all;:eted, and in reply spoke to the following effect :
He said he was deeply affected and much gratified by this
kind feelings which the bar had expressed towards him.
The only merit he could claim for himself was that
it using his best endeavour to discharge the duties of his
office, and no one could be more conscious than he wee et
his shortcomings in the performance of those duties. He
could only attribute the approbation which had been so
kindly expressed of his conduct to the indulgence of the her
towards him, and their disposition to put a favourable con-
struction upon his acts. At a cooler moment there would
he a stricter scrutiny of his conduct, which would have to
be tested by the reports and his history, which would show
Um he hail perforated his duties. They would show also
bow greatly he had been assisted by the learning and ia-
tegrity of the bar who had practised before him. Andhra,
he would add that every man, in whatever department et
the profession he might be, had it greatly in his power to
contribute to the due administration of justice, and had
little could be done by the judge without such aridenen
No one had enjoyed more of that assistance than Itionekt.

EQUITY COURTS.—YESTERDAT.
Damn twos essswesno ChM Cossrsuwal•
INS BONOMeanie( AND BIagIINOMADI RAILWAT COS-
PANT ti, WILLIAM WILMA'S Gone AND 011111 AS.
1 The bill in this case was filed in the name of the com-
pany against the governing body of directors, alleging that
the defendants, in opposition to the wishes of a majority of 1
the shareholders of the company, had affixed the seal et
the company to two agreements, owe dated in July, 1860,
with the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway Compani, and
the other, dated in January last, with the Great Western
Railway Company : that such agreements were considered
improper and injurious to the interest of the Shrewsbury
and Birmingham Company,by the greater portion of
the proprietors thereof; that on the 20th March, 1861,
tho Shrewsbury and Chester Company, and the Great
Western Company filed their bills against the Shrewsbury
and Birmingham Company for specific performance of their
respective agreements ; that it was desirable to resist to the
utmost any decree being made in such suits ; that never-
theless the defendants, the directors of the Shrewsbury and
Birmingham Company, had appeared for the company in
such suits, and intended, in the name of the company, to
consent to orders prayed, and for which notice of motion
bad been given, in such suits for injunctions to restrain the
company from the violation of such agreements ; that the
directors were thus proceeding in opposition to the wisher
of • majority of the proprietors, for the pmpose of
benefiting the Great Western and Shrewsbury and
Chester Companies to the absolute detriment of the
Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company. The bill
prayed for an injunction to restrain the defendants from
ortneenting in the name of the company to any orders
upon such notices of motion, or to any other orders in the
aid suit instituted against the Shrewsbury and Birming-
ham Company in reference to the said agreement, and from
defending said suits except under direction and sanction of
the shareholders of the company obtained at a general
meeting thereof. The bill having been put on the file by
Mr. Scott and Mr. Webster, two of the shareholders, in
the name of the company as a corporation, but without
having previously obtained the sanction of a general meet-
ing of the proprietors specially convened for the purpose,
as application was now made by the directors on behalf of
the company to take the bill off the file, on the ground that
it had been placed thereon without the authority of the
company. They asked also that the costs occasioned by
filing the bill might be paid by the parties filing it.
Mr. Stuart, Mr. Itolt, and Mr. Hardy, in support of the
motion, contended that the bill had been improperly placed
on the file in the name of the company. A company was
incapable of filing a bill unless with the sanction of a reso-
lution
previously parsed at a public meeting specially eon-
vened for the purpose, and unless by the agency of its own'
solicitor duly authorised under seal. No such resolution
had been passed in the present ease, and the solicitor em-
ployed to place the bill on the file was not the duly math°.
need solicitor of the company. It was true that in the
"Exeter and Crciliton Railway Company o. Buller" (11
Jurist, 532), _an application like the present had not
been attended with success, but in that case there
VMS • contention amongst the body of proprietors as well as
amongst the directors themselves, amounting to a complete
disorganisation of the governing body. Such was not the
case here. The defendants were the governing body. They
were unanimous in favour of the agreements sought to be
impeached, and until their functions were superseded by
the resolution of a general meeting of shareholders, they
were entitled to be considered the sole managers of the
affairs of the company, and the sole parties entitled to act
in the matter of such agreements.
Mr. Wood and Mr. T. V. Prior, for the plaintiffs in
the bill, in opposition to the motion, said that in July,
1660, the contract with the Shrewsbury sad Chester
Compauy was entered into. In September its tams
were submitted to • general meeting of the y
and drew down a general expression of
hen. On that occasion no further prommike was
taken. The chairman, in the name of the Glitter& amide% i
twelve of whom were present, gave a solemn pia* sit Is
enter into further contracts without obtaining the
sanction of a general meeting specially called for CV.
pose. Relying upon this, the shareholders took no Mss to
what had already been done. Notwi
Cipts alg e , the directors, on the 10th January tobeethig,
mitered into the agreement with the Great Western Itsil-
way Company mentioned in the bill. At the half-yearly
meeting tithe company, held on the 12th February following,
the diregen disclosed by their report that the agreement had
►texiiiii into in violation of the pledge given to the
. Upon this, the shareholders being greatly
as ad and dissatisfied, passed • resolution to the effect
pimalato
: "That the further consideration of the report'
of Ad ts he postponed, and that the meeting being
bbealided with the poaitioo and management of the each
of the eempany, • committee of shareholders be appointed
to implosions the truth of the statement of accounts, and
into Am any of the acts of the directors and their officers, I
width mop be brought under their notice • and into the I
mew sod validity of all agreements made by them, and
ply into the necessity fur entering into • perma-
neat agreement with the Great Western Railway Company 1
ea the eve et • general swain, in violation of: 11211diLle
with power M inquire for ab the circuastaeces .
with seek egetement, allitglgli IM inquire into the set
each of the sward bells disk the et:Teton are now prem.
eating in j=lle= moil whether the some or any and
which Of be supported or approved by the
slarehebbmis red with power to napes nemetbmons with
the Lenin dna North Weotent Cempseig, fie ibe purpose
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816 1151, dr imemlitee mode their re-
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to
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2.11 My, ISA remit at a minute lowelfgallicat into this subject, that