The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-09 00:00:00

t the worknian

mount was debited as ag

the 23rd of April, 1845, au arrangement
plaintiff and defendant, by which the former was to be
paid 303 a week, provided a certain amount of work was
done. It was stated that this agreement was never acted
upon by the defendant, and the agreement being only for
three years, it would, in any case, have been void, by lapse
of time. In January, 1853 it was said there was a balance
of the amount, which had been overpaid to the defendant, of
£22 is 3d, which, it was contended, defendant had admitted
and adopted by making entries of other items in the same
book into which the balance had been entered. Since 1853
there had been other overpayments made which together
made up the amount sought to be recovered in the present
action. The evidence of the plaintiff and others was given
to support the case. Mr. Brett contended that the action
was altogether a trumped-up one, because the defendant
had set up in business for himself, and remarked that
although they had heard a great deal about arbitrary
conduct upon the part of workmen, yet when agreements
came to be committed to writing they found that such men
as Mr. Samuels always took care to have the advantage
upon their own sides. Evidence having been given en the
part of the defence, the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff
for the full amount claimed.

1e between

SNEADE V. STONE.-ThiS was an action brought by a
person named Craven Berkeley Sneade against George
Stone. Mr. Brett, who appeared for the plaintiff, said the
plaintiff was a commission agent, and the defendant a
publican. It would appear that the defendant had a public-
house, in which his daughter was living with him, and he
required another house in order that he might give up the
house in which he then lived to his daughter to set up for
herself, and he himself go into the other public-house. He
therefore employed the plaintiff to look out for another
public-house • for him. The plaintiff did look out
for some time, and he heard of a house called the Napier
Vau:ts, kept by a person named Murphy, which the
latter was willing to give up. He de.cribed the house to
the defendant, who sent his wife and daughter to look at it,
and the latter was so much pleased with it that a specific
engagement was made that the plaintiff should get the
house, and act as a commission agent usually does, his
commission to be 410. The defendant went over the house,
made out an inventory, and drew up an agreement. The
amount originally demanded for the house was £250, but
the plaintiff succeeded in getting it for £230. He attended
the licensing session, and saw the licence transferred to the
defendant, who accordingly took the house, and had it.
the plaintiff applied for the commission of £lO, bat after
repeated applications it was not paid, and the present action
was accordingly brought. Mr. Aspinall, upon the part of
the defence, proceeded to show by evidence that the agree-
ment with the plaiutiff was to the effect that he should have
£lO commission, provided he effected a purchase of the
house for £2OO, and that as he had not done this, he was
not entitled to recover. It was also stated that when he
went to the Napier vaults with the defendant's wife and
daughter, Mrs. Murphy absolutely declined to have any
dealing at all in the matter if Sneade continued in it, as she
said he had acted unfairly in a previous instance with her
former husband. The defendant, George Stone, was
examined, and created considerable amusement in
court by the manner in which he gave his
evidence. In the first instance, he persisted, not-
withstanding the repeated interference of the court, in
kissing the book before a word of the oath could be admin-
istered, and at every new reprimand of the bench, turning
to the learned assessor and signifying his respect by pulling
one of the locks of hair on his forehead, beading his head,
and giving the peculiar nautical scrape of his left foot. As
a kind of explanation of these performances, Mr. Aspinall
said : You are a sailor, I believe ? Witness . Aye, aye—
I'm nothing else. (Laughter.) The witness then stated,
in answer to Mt. Aspinall, that he never promised to pay
plaintiff £lO, and had nothing to do with the case at all—
in his own words, he never had any chat at all about it.
Mr. Brett You paid the money for the Napier vaults ?
Witness . I did, sir. Mr. Brett : You drank the' beer
there ? No, I aidn't drink the beer—l drank the ale.
(Laughter.) Mr. Brett : Did you sign any agreement??
Witness :No I never bad a pen in my fie.. (Laughter.)
Other witnesses having also been called, the jury found a
verdict for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed. The
Court : It seems to me to have been rather a bold thing to
deny it.

(iGsroN u. JACKSON.—Mr. Raffles appeared for the
plaintiff in this action, and Mr. Crompton Hutton for the
defendant. The plaintiff was a woollen merchant in Hud-
dersfield, and the defendant a tailor and draper in Crosshall
Street, Liverpool. The action was brought to recover
£3O 153. sd. for goods ordered at different times from the
plaintiff's traveller and supplied, No defence was gone
into, and a verdict was given for the full amount.

DiXON AND ANOTHEI, V. EILODIN.--ThlSPi7 an action
brought for work done and materials supplied. Mr. Brett
appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. fziimon fur the defence.
The plaintiff's allegation was that in August 1854 they were
employed, being joiners and builders, by the defendant, who
is a broker, to make some alterations in the premises of the
latter, which amounted to £2B 93. 3d. Of that amount
they received £2O on account. Babequently they did some
small work for defendant, amounting to £2 4s 2d. This
latter amount was paid by defendant into court, and tin
balance of £8 9s 3d, claimed by plaintiff, was disputed. On
the part.of the defence, it was contended that the amount
claimed was an overcharge, and that £lB would have been
sufficient to pay for the work done. The jury found a
verdict for the plaintiff for the amount claimed, the learned
assessor. remarking that it was one of the -most hopeless
defences he had ever known.

GREEN V. ROBINSON AND ANOTREIL—This was an
action brought to; recover damages for grievous bodily
harm done to the plaintiff, in consequence of alleged
neglect and careless conduct upon the part of the defen-
dants in the case. Mr. M‘Donnell opened the pleadings.
Mr. Aspinall said : The plaintiff in this case was a little
boy, only nine years old, the son of a labourer. The
defendants were extensive, and, he believed, very pros-
perous and, wealthy spirit merchants, who also carried
on a retail trade in this town, at the corner of St. James'
street and Duncan street. The action was brought to
recover damages from the defendants for an accident of
the most serious nature, which was alleged to be the
result of their negligence in carrying on their trade. It
appeared that there were three doors to these premises,
projecting into the street further than the windows pro-
jected, and between the doors there was a railing along
the wall of the premises fronting to the street. In the
front of the space where the windows were, the railings
constituted a small recess or area between the outer wall
of the house and the street. The defendants were in the
habit of making use of the small space, which would be
shown to be only two feet six iuches for storing barrels.
The length of the barrels from end to end would be shown
to be three feet nine inches, so that the jury would
observe that the end of a barrel resting on the rails
would project into the street fifteen inches. The
little boy was going along the street when
from some cause or other, either some vibration of the
motion going on in the street, or from its own insecure
position, the one of the barrels tumbled over, fell upon the
boy, and broke:his leg. The accident was of such a serious
nature, that it was found necessary to have the leg am-
putated. The child was in the hospital still. He had
undergone a number of operations, and it was not certain
that another would not have to be performed, while as
far as regarded the question of mere pain and suffering,
the accident was one of a most serious character. Mr.
Aspinall contended at some length that the defendants
were responsible for the accident which had thus resulted.
The amount of damages claimed was 5001. Witnesses
were examined to ,show that the accident which took
place on Sunday, the 7th of October, occurred without
the barrel having been touched by the boy in passing
under. The evidence of Mr. Royston, surgeon, was given
to show the nature and extent of the injuries.' Mr. Brett,
on behalf of the defendants, denied that the accident
was caused by their negligence, and that the manner in
which the barrels were placed, was the manner in which"
they had always been placed withlsafety up to that time.
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages
2501.

The court adjourned soon after half-past six

The Vienna correspondent
.of the Frankfort Post
Gazette writes, on the Ist inSta.nt, that the hopes of peace
raised by Ceunt Esterhaiy's mission had-suddenly dis-
appeared.. No one knows why the accumulation of large
bodies of troops-in'BeSsarabia is regarded as a proof that
Russia will energetically oppose any diminution of
territory: _ _

A correspondent writes from Sebastopol, Dec. 24 :
One of the five celebrated dry docks was demolished
by the French on the 22nd ultimo, by the explosion of
mines. The blast almost instantaneously reduced the
massive fabric into a ruined heap of stones. In addition
to this the French have 'to destroy another dry dock:
Arrangements have been made for firing the English
mines by a voltaic. battery. The French mines were
fired by means Alf trains 'of laid gunpowder and fusees:
Report says, that all the preparations will be completed
for the demolition of the. three docks to he deatroyed by
the English
in the course of a week from the present
date.h e
weather has been much milder since the last
mail Tleft. It has only been after sunset that the temper-
ature has reached :the freezing point. Great prepar 1-•
tions arc being made in the British camp to celebrate
Christmas. The wire from- the monastery of St. George
to Varna is not likely to be again._ ready for work till
the end of February or commencement of March. The
breakage has been found to be about twenty-five miles
this side of Varna.