The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-15 00:00:00

CHAPLIN V. HIINT-A RESPECTABLE WITNESS.

The testatrix in this case was Mrs. C. Bailey, late
of Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, who died on 30th
April last, leaving avery small estate—about £2OO.
The only controversy in the cause was whether her
last will had been duly executed ; and after calling
some witnesses there appeared no doubt that such
had been the case. The ground of opposition was
the story of an old man named Salter, who charged
his son-in-law, a Mr. Moxey, with having forged
the will.

Dr. Deane, Q.C., supported the will ; Dr. Spinks
and Mr. Honeyman appeared for the plaintiff, who
was the executor in a previous will.
The learned Judge had no doubt that Salter was
a most gross liar, and had perjured himself before
the Court. Indeed, if he (Sir C. Cresswell) had the
power which was given to the common law judges
under the late Procedure Act he should order him
to be indicted for perjury. He considered that Mr.
Chaplin had shown great want of caution in the
mode in which he had conducted himself; and he
should, therefore, take time to consider whether he
ought not to be condemned in the costs.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
IN RE WALTON AND WALTON.-JUDGMENT.

Mr. Commissioner Fane delivered the following
judgment in this matter, which occupied the court
for several days :—The bankrupts, Mr. Charles
Walton and Mr. Wm. Walton, now asked for their
certificates. Their father, Mr. Charles Walton,•had
carried on business for many years (it is said 30
years before 1856), as a shipowner, and he consi-
dered, and had been considered by others, as a
wealthy man. He at one time estimated his pro-
perty so highly as to have left each of his daughters
£lO,OOO. His property, however, consisted princi-
pally of ships, and shipping having fallen very
much in value before his death, he had reduced his
daughters' legacies to £7,000 each. He had pro-
vided for his two sons by taking them into part-
nership with him, giving each one-fourth of the
property. On the admission of the sons the busi-
ness was carried on under the style of Walton and
Sons. Before April, 1856, the bankrupts had sus-
tained a heavy loss in connection with a consign-
ment to Australia, and Wm. Walton had gone to
Australia to see what could be recovered. In April,
1856, whilst Wm. Walton was in Australia, the
father died, and, Charles Walton carried on the
business under the style of the old firm, Walton and
Sons, on behalf of his father's executors, himself,
and brothers. This continued until the early part of
1857, when Wm. Walton returned to England,
bringing very unfavourable intelligence as to the
Australian loss. It is clear that at that time the
firm was utterly insolvent, partly from losses and
partly from depreciation in the value of shipping,
of which their property chiefly consisted. That,
therefore, was the time when they ought to have
looked their affairs steadily in the face, ascertained
how they stood, and if they were unable to meet
their engagements, to have brought their affairs be-
fore their creditors, and proposed a further arrange-
mentwith them. B utcreditors are a large bodytowhom
Quot homines, toe sententim, is singularly applic-
able, and it rarely happens that all will act reason-
ably; hence debtors have seldom courage to en-
counter their creditors sufficiently soon. The
debtors shrunk from the ordeal, struggled on, and I
regret to say, not only for a reasonable time, but
until their joint debts amounted to £44,000 and
upwards, and their joint assets to very little indeed.
They represent their joint assets as £3,000 or
£4,000, but the official assignee is of opinion that
no such sum wil be'produced, and if it be, itjwill be
by the aid of a sum of £1,794 10s., which, if re-
ceived, will be raised under circumstances inflicting
a very cruel injustice on the owners of a ship called
the Natolia. lam not sure that lam stating the
facts quite correctly, but I am stating them with
sufficient accuracy for my present purpose, which is
to show how unjustly Charles Walton acted. The
Messrs. Marten and Co., of Liverpool, had a vessel
for chartering called the Natolia ; Dale and Co., of
Liverpool, were shipbrokers to Marten and Co.,
charterers. They put themselves in communication
with Charles S alton who had a place of business
in Liverpool, as a shipbroker, and Messrs. Walton
found a charterer in Messrs. Perie and Co., of Liver-
pool, who were willing to take up the vessel to
carry coals to Bombay. Having regard to the
circumstances of Walton and Co. it is clear that
Charles Walton ought to have made the chartering
of the Natolia direct to Messrs. Perie, in which case
Messrs. Perie and Co. would have made the pay-
ment due on the charter party to the owners of the
ship which had earned it. Instead of doing this,
Charles Walton took the Natolia on charter to his
own firm, and then rechartered her from his firm
to Perie and Co. The consequence of which is that
Perie and Co. have to pay to Walton's joint estate
£1,794 10s., and the real owners of the vessel will
get, not the £1,794 10s., but a pitiful sum of ls. 6d.
in the pound as dividend upon Walton's estate. This
transaction took place on the 3d of Oct., 1857, and
on the 18th Jan., 1858, the Waltons stopped pay-
ment. Why '
did not Mr. C. Walton, in the then
state of his circumstances, which he must have
known on the 3d of Oct., 1857, take care that the
charterparty was direct between the owners of the
Natolia and Messrs. Perie and Co., by which he
would have earned his brokerage, and which and
which only was his due; and why did he not ab-
stain from doing a great wrong to the owners of
the Natolia by taking the chartering of the vessel
on his own firm, and then chartering her to Messrs.
Perie and Co. ? There was another transaction re-
lating to a ship called the Eugenie, which involved
the placing of bills on the money market with the
Waltons' names upon them, and this transaction
also was commented upon as an accommodation
transaction. lam satisfied that it was a perfectly
legitimate transaction in itself, though owing to a
forgery, or something like it, it involved a loss to
the bankrupts ; but whilst I exempt the bankrupts
from the above and other charges, made through
misapprehension, and whilst I believe that the
bankrupts are in the main well-intentioned men,
and whilst I look upon them as, to a certain extent,
objects of commiseration, as having found them-
selves, as successors of their father, involved in dif-
ficulties, for which it would be harsh to say that
they were wholly responsible, still I am obliged to
fall back upon my original charge against them,
that they shut their eyes against what they did not
choose to see, namely, to the fact that they owed
£44,000 and upwards, and really had scarcely any
assets to meet it ; and that rather than meet their
creditors, as they ought to have done, .while they
had yet substantial assets to distribute, they went
on to the last, paying, amongst others, the Bank of
England to the extent of £4,000 a short time be-
fore their bankruptcy, and thus unjustly preferring
some and sacrificing other creditors. tinder these
circumstances I can only give them certificates of
the lowest class. Lpronounce this judgment with
a certain degree of regret, but I feel myself com-
pelled on all fitting occasions to denounce the great
commercial offence of which a debtor is guilty, who
when there is no reasonable hope of recovery, per-
sists in struggling on day after day, increasing the
loss which must fall sooner or later on his unfortu-
nate creditors.

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