The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDA'.K YENING, MAY. 9, 1870.

OBTAINING A VERDICT AGAINST A RAIL-
WAY COMPANY BY FRAUD.

SATURDAY,

In the Court of Common Pleas, Westminster, this
afternoon, Mr. Brown, Q.C., appeared to shew cause
against a rule obtained in the case of Dickenson v. the
London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company.
It was a rule calling upon the plaintiff and his attorney to
shew cause why a judgment by default in this cause
and a judgment sum obtained, be not set aside, and the
defendants be let in to plead, also, why they should not
repay to the defendants a sum of £343 ss. 4d., the amount
of damages and taxed costs in the case ; and the attorney
to answer what he had done with the moneys so obtained.
Mr. Brown said he appeared on behalf of the plaintiff's
attorney, Mr. Stephen Scott. It appeared that the
plaintiff had got the damages awarded to him on an action
brought by him against the company for injuries alleged
to have been sustained by him in the New
Cross Railway accident last summer. It was after
wards ascertained that he was not in the train at the time
of the accident, and that the rupture of which he com-
plained was of two years' standing. He was indicted for
perjury and fraud, and was sentenced at the Central
,riminal Court on the 14th of January last to two
years' imprisonment with hard labour.. The plain-
tiff did not appear, although he had been
served with the rule in prison. The learned counsel said
that his client, the attorney, had actually paid over, on
the 20th November last, the money he received, to the
plaintiff and the doctor, with the exception of the amount
to which he was entitled for his costs. He produced Mr.
Scott's cheque-book, endorsed by Dickenson. Mr. Scott
lamented, as much as anybody, what had occurred ;
but it was certainly hard that he should have been put
into this rule.—Mr. Lopes, on behalf of the company, did
not impute any knowledge of the fraud to Mr. Scott, and
the only question was whether that gentleman ought to
be called upon to repay sums of £93 odd taxed costs and
£37 is. Bd. extra costs between the attorney
and his client, making altogether about £l3O. He
asked if an officer of the court was to reap the fruits of a
fraud on the part of his client. Had the verdict at the
trial been for the defendants, Mr. Scott would have had
to look to his client for the costs ' • and he submitted that
as the verdict had been obtained by fraud the money was
as much that of the company as if it had not
been paid over.—The court held that the rule
must be made absolute so far as Dickenson was concerned;
but they could not make the attorney liable, as if he had
been a participator in that fraud. It must be taken
as if he had really paid over to his client
all the moneys he received, and then his client
had paid him back in costs. So far as Mr. Scott was
concerned, therefore, that rule would be discharged.
Mr. Brown intimated that Mr. Scott did not propose to
ask for any costs in that rule.

THE MEDICAL REFORM UNION.

SATURDAY.

This afternoon a general meeting of the medical pro-

fession was held at the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen-
street, London, "to receive the report of the Provisional
Executive of the Medical Reform Union, and to
discuss Earl De Grey's bill which fails to
give effect to the prayer of the 9,724 legally qualified
practitioners who signed the Birmingham Memorial."
Mr. Sampson Gamgee, F.R.S., Vice-President of the
Union, presided, but there were not mere than thirty
gentlemen present at the commencement of the meeting.
The Chairman, in opening the business, said he did not
wish to pledge the meeting to the confirmation of all the
acts of the Executive, but to the practical adoption
of the memorial movement, to the acceptance of
the Medical Reform Union as a fact, and
to their resignation as the provisional execu-
tive of the Union. As soon as the report was re-
ceived and adopted he should ask them to elect a chair-
man, under whose direction they might proceed to discuss
Earl de Grey's bill and the present state of the question
of the amendment of the Medical Acts as it affected the

profession and the public. The profession, as a body, had
at heart. the highest interest of scientific progress and of
the public welfare, and had protested against scholastic
divisions and prayed for unity. On them rested the re-
sponsibility of proving that they were, as a body,
equal to the emergencey. As regarded the
memorial, it had a definite value. It was
because the mass of the profession had no voice in its own
Government, or in the management of its colleges, that
they prayed for a reform which should give them the posi-
to which they felt they were entitled. However
little the bill might yield to the prayer of
the 9,724 memorialists, he should be personally disposed
to accept it, provided it recognised the principle of self-
government, and allowed the profession a representative
voice in the general medical council. It was because the
bill enacted important changes, to the exclusion
of the essential one, that it found little
favour with them. It crippled the corporations
without giving vigour to the profession • it reduced to
submission those who had certainly not dealt generously
by the profession, without giving the latter the right to
administer its own affairs—a right which he sincerely
thought it as much to the interest of the
State that Parliament should concede as it was the

duty of the profession to insist upon by all constitutional
means at their command. He did not think they would
find it easy to adduce many arguments in favour of placing
the profession practically under the control of a Government
department. The leadingideaof the Provisional Executive
of the Union had been to promote and cement the union
of the profession. A crisis was now at hand, and it was
for them to decide how the ends they sought could
be best secured. As a profession they had a
good cause to plead before Parliament ; the
memorial was a basis, and the medical reform
Union an engine, and upon the manner in which the
former is built and the latter worked the result depended.
The executive which now resigned had done its best to
preserve intact the foundation which it helped to lay,
and to direct the working of the union so as to
find it in still closer unity as an indispensable condition to
success. The responsibility of continuing the work now
rested with the meeting. In conclusion, he moved that
the report, which had been some days in circulation, be
received and adopted.—Dr. J. G. Davey, of Bristol,
seconded the proposition. —The proceedings were here sus-
pended for a while, on account of the small attend-
ance. On their resumption, Mr. Grant (Bir-
mingham) complained that they were not represented
at the general medical council and moved "that
this meeting greatly regrets the omission from the proposed
Medical Act Amendment Bill of any amended scheme of
representation in the Medical Council ; and that to secure
the representation of the whole body of members, licentiates,
and fellows of the medical corporations, and graduates of
the United Kingdom, provision should be made distinctly
empowering them to elect the representatives of these bodies
in the Medical Council." Dr. Belgrave seconded the motion.
—Dr. Harley moved as an amendment " that this meeting
greatly regret the omission from the proposed medical
Act, Amendment Bill of a clause to secure the direct repre-
sentation of the whole body of the registered members of
the medical profession, in the Medical Council, and would
suggest that a clause giving direct representation to such
body be inserted."—Dr. Rogers seconded it, as he
thought the proposition went straight to the mark,
After some discussion the amendment was adopted by 20
to 16. Dr. Duffield said the amendment had been carried
but it would never be carried into practice. He he.d
to move —" That, in the opinion of the meeting, the
council or governing bodies of the several medical corpo-
rations should be elected by the entire body of members,
licentiates, and fellows respectively belonging to them.
Dr. Wiltshire said he feared that while they
were reforming, or trying to reform, their corporations,
the bill would pass and the whole medical body would be
in the hands of !the Privy C. uucil.—The proposition
havingbeen seconded, it was put and carried unanimously.
A resolution was then agreed to, disapproving of the
powers to be conferred upon the Privy Council by the
Medical Bill, and it was decided that the resolutions
should be sent to the Lord President and to the various
medical bodies and corporations.