The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-06-27 00:00:00

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HALE r. WEEDON.

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LAW INTELLIGENCE.
• COURT OP OP KING'S BENCH, Jugg 2s.
• 1111121 u. LOWsineiltre.
Mr. Aittaiaili 'peed the pleadings and said, that in this cause
libedstiff wen Proprietor of a Sydenhans stage-coach, and the tie.
fl- had matted an opposition coach to the same Mere. The
amine of action was be the defendant's improperly driving against
theplaintiti's coach, by which the latter had his harness broken,
end a valsable mare injured.
The Common Seances? stated the ease. The Jury had
bees. already informed who were the parties in this cause, and it
rturadess, Irons the circumatance of their being rivals in the
rose trade, that hllia 'cessation between them had arisen. Tba
ylalladff was, on last -Easter Blonder evening, at eight o'clock, in
rut ast id drawing elffrosn the George and Oen Ina, Dracechumb.
setaekt, which was the °See where his stage-coach booked, when this
cetiehoso, Who wads furiously driving to pass him RR
the wroog sue, Ise the purpose, no doubt, of taking the lead, as
toe/ atheistertlas wenely together, drove the splinter-leer against
teselsa•seettare pieintiffs mach, and hurt the animal so severely
to the die, that shot was obliged to be sent to a farrier's, where
sheath bidet ustinent for several days, owing to the injury she
hsd4Nlellielrfsora the blow, which knocked her aside, and broke
tar husees. I'he mare was thus deteriorated in value ; and the
iieferidont's iessehnealt, so far from expressing regret for what he
t at sliste, cased to box the pleintil' fee five shillings, when they
anel;na the saline evening at the Elephant and Castle. Besides
sloe wattage., be was instructed to state that defendant's coachman
uah drank, entluzlit to manage his hones when this accident-4w
eased. If be proved these facts, he was convinced the Jury would
feel piemsee io indaundying the plaint illicit. the injury he bad /So
et.sed through the misconduct of the defendant's servant.
ibittkWriagle was In the plaintiff's employment, mad sow his
cesett *tort en Easter Monday evening, as the clock sem& eight,
%atilt was the time for their starting. (Here, at the inageotion
ul Me. Besogium, for the defendant, the witness pt *release
nom rsepouleility to action, as he was the coachman who drove
plaiatiff's coach at the time, and as it might prove a disputed
poise which was in ermr.) The witness proceeded to state, that
as the dock struck eight, he was in the act of drawing his horses
from the kennel side, to start, when the defer.dant's coachman
whipped his hones forward, and ran against the plaintiff". leader
with such violence, as to stoke the splinter bar into the mare's
thigh, and burst the hamru. This occurred owing to the defend.
wad's &tying past violently, and on the wrong side. Witness suc-
ceeded' in a few minutes in mending the harness, and getting his
=lforward. They overtook the plaintiff's coach at the Ele.
t nod Castle, where witness's employer, who happened to he
xi& him, riding on the coach, remonstrated with the other driver
far his wanton conduct, when the driver came down from his box,
aid offered to fight his master for five shillings. (A laugh.) The
hone was obliged to be put into a farrier's bands, and war, certainly
owing to the accident, not worth as much since as she was before.
Could not say the man was drunk, or incapable to do his work at
the time.
Cross•exaruined by Mr. Baournfax—AVas quite sober himself
at the time. Had not on that Easter Monday certainly confined
himself to a water diet, but might have taken a glass of' ale, with
something in it perhaps. Was perfectly sure that the cause of the
accident was not witness's suddenly pulling his horses from the
kennel side, to throw aside the defendant's leaden as they drove
be him, they having to start also at the same time, and from the
same plan. lie mended the harness In about five minutes, and he
drove the same horse on in quick time to Sydenbam, so as to over-
take the other coach at the Elephant and Castle.
Mr. S. H. Berry was a passenger on the outside of the plaintiff's
coach, and attributed the accidegt entirely to the hard and improper
driving of defendant's coachman. Plaintiff's coachman was about
to start his lione" steadily when the accident happened.
Mr. Laurie, and another witness named Robert Spooner, corro-
borated the previous testimony for the plaintiff.
J. Hedley, the farrier, who had charge of the mare after the ac-
cident, excited some laughter in Court by hit technical description
of the injury which she had received by the accident ; her thigh
was bruised and lacerated, and she had inflammation and a compel.
cation of disorder, owing to it. She was five weeks under his cos,
and his charge was two guineas. He had, however, made a coma.
plate cure, and the mare was as well as ever.
In his cross-examination he said that the mare was driven the',
day after the accident, but that occasioned an " inflammation" upon'
" the complication" of the other disorders.
Mr. Bitontanam addressed the Jury for the defendant,and ridi-
culed all this work about the scratching of the plaintiffs mare by
this splinter-bar, owing to the carelessness of his own driver, foe
he was the person who was really to blame. The Jury would bear
in mind, that this occurred in the holiday season, and was evi.
dently a scramble between two coachmen, to see who coned start
Ent, although it was encumbered, like most horse causes, with a
great deal of botheration about inflammation, and such matters.
All lie hoped was, that if inflammation were ever to seize either
him or the Jury, that they would get out of it as easily as the
mare did, that was, by being able to go on with their work rit the
time, and prove as good as ever afterward c. But he would clearly
show by credible witnesses, that the accident, trifling as it was,
and ridiculous for the magnifying of it into an action at few, had
wholly arisenefrom the act of the plaintiff's coachman, in twitting
his horses' heads suddenly from the kennel toward' the centre of
the open way on one side of the hackney coach stand, as the de-
fendant's coach passed, by which he brought the horses in contact
with the splinter-bar, and occasioned the injury. He Would prove
this by witnesses, and the Jury would, he trusted, discourage this
petty spirit of bickering rivalry.
Mr. Ogle, defendant's attorney, resided at Dulwich, and was in
the habit of tiding home upon his coach, which always punctually
started at eight o'clock. He was the only outside passenger, and
certainly thought the defendant's man might have driven past, had
not the plaintiff reined out his hones, which brought them into
contact. The accident had, he thought, entirely arisen from that
circumstance.
Henry Level], the boy who had to see a clear way for the coaches
at starting from Gracechurch-street, said, that the passage was
open, when the defendant's coachm in whipped on his horses, to
mutat eight o'clock, and that the subsequent occurrence took
place, because of the plaintiff's horses being saidcnly turned into
the middle of the street, from the kenr.el.
T. White. the driver of the defendant's coach when the accident
occurred, gave the same account of the occurrence, and disclaimed
having either driven hard or wantonly ; he imputed the whole
blame to the plaintiff's coachman, and insisted that it was the plain-
tiff who had challenged him to tight, at the Elephant and Castle,
be they " did'nt have a turn-to." He was qui:e sober.
Two Peckham stage coachmen, who saw the transaction, eon-
'wired in exonerating the defendant's coachman from blame on
this occasion. -
The COICMON SERGEANT replied, and insisted that, however
small the damage was, still the defendant was liable to repair the
injury which he had inflicted upon the plaintiff
The LORD Cane? JUSTICE left the ease to the Jury, upon the I
view which they thought proper to take of the conflicting evidence
hez ween the parties.
The Jury, after a short consultation, inquired whether they
could not bring in a verdict which would leave each party to pay
hit own ants.
Open this suggestion--
The Convene SERGEANT consented, for the plaintiff, to with-
draw a Juror.

DOVE V. ;MAINE.
This WU an action brought by the plaintiff, who was a printer,
against the defendant, a publisher, for upwards of 100 L, being the
amount of wmk alleged to have been done for bim, in printing •
owes of books ealled the " Brinshclassics," in the list of which

were the Vicar of Wakefield, Doddridge'slVoeks, Collina'a Works,
tisaian's Poem", Franklin's Works, &c. &c.
It was agreed as the plaintiff"' case was opening, to refer the
imam is arbitration, as there appeared tote some dispated set-eff
in the accounts between the iivsitoi.
'The Loan CHIEF Just iC E approved of the arbitration, as the
- best mode of settling the business between the parties.

rd. was an action for defamation. The 'parties were resident at
Hatfield, its Middlesex, and upon the occasion of the plaintifi'l
going before a Magistrate to swear-lin assault against a man of the
vane ed Tapde, the defendant had said that Hale was a perjured
or fonwan man, and that nobody who knew him would sit with
bim on a Jury.
For the defence, it was urged that the word, forsworn, not in
writing, but delivered orfilly, was not actionable, and that only one
witness had sworn to the word perjury, the ether witnesses con.
curring that the word used was forsworn,
The cue went to the Jury upon tllc credibility of dd., witness,
corroborated by the circumstances of the case.
The Jury negatived the ward perjury, and found upn the other
of the declaration, charging the word used to be tursworn.
t;OtIllT OF COMMON PLEAS, SATUII)AT, JUNE 23.