The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-25 00:00:00

MOWATT V. THE WEST LONDON RAILWAY COMPANY.

On the application of Mr. Jolliffe to-day, his Honour gave
leave to serve a notice of motion for the next seal..
CHRIST'S HOSPITAL AND THE CITY OF LONDON V. THE REV.

CECIL GRANGER.

The case came before the Court upon motion, on behalf of
the plaintiffs, for liberty further to amend theirbill. The case
hes been before the Court upon several occasions upon ex-
ceptions taken to the answer of the defendant, and also for
the production of certain documents. The question arose
upon ;he exceptions relative to the way in which the answer
was framed, and as to setting forth the document in pos-
session of the defendant.

The COURT ordered the motion to stand over to the nor
seal together with a motion on behalf of the defendant to dis.
miss the bill.

IN TIDE MATTER OF THE SCOTTISH MIDLAND RAILWAY.

In this case the Court, upon the application of Mr. Free-
ling, ordered the deposits to be paid out, the parties having
obtained their Act.
His Honour will sit to-morrow at Lincoln's Inn at two
o'clock, in order to hear the case of Davis v. Combermere.
(Before Vice-Chancellor WIGRAM.)

LANGFORD V. THE BRIGHTON AND HASTINGS RAILWAY

COMPANY.

An injunction was moved for by the plaintiff to restrain
the Company from trespassing on his land, Mount-field, in
the pariah of St. Baptist, Southover, Sussex. The ground
put fhrward by Mr. Palmer, the plaintiff's counsel, was the
absence of license to the Company to begin the excavations
on the property until the purchase-money be agreed on and
paid, but the Company rept esented by affidavits that they had
got through three different parties verbal license
from the plaintiff to begin their works, who thought this
would enable the referee better to estimate the damage done
to the property, and had engaged with contractors ; in con-
sequence of which they must be put to great inconvenience
and loss by an injunction. The Company, moreover, since
the notice of motion for this injunction, had made offer to
make such a deposit as might be agreed on between the
p art lest
His Hoxoun refused the motion, with costs, against the
plaintiff. The plaintiff did not appear to him to have shown
any cause for the injunction being granted. The Company's
offer of deposit was again made at bar, and parties ulti-
mately agreed that 1,0001. should be deposited within a
week with the pligntiff's bankers.
The ground in all extends to one rood and two perches.

QUEEN'S BENCH.-(THIS DAY.)
FOSTER V. THE GOVERNORS AND COMPANY OF THE RANK

OF ENGLAND.

In this case the plaintiff bad applied for a rule to compel
the Bank of England to allow her to inspect what she called
the transfer books, in which were certain entries as to the
holders of stock.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL rose to show cause why the rule
should not be made absolute, and why the plaintiff should
not be at liberty to examine the books of the Governor and
Company of the Bank of England. He was prepared to show
that the books of the Bank were the private property of the
Company ; but there was a class of books to which the plaintiff
had access. The plaintiff claimed KW. in the Three-and-a-
Half per Cent. Annuities in the Bank of England, and there
was no doubt that her deceased husband was at one time en-
titled to that amount of stock; but the Bank allege that
that stock was transferred, and, therefore, the account was
closed. The plaintiff, however, alleges that she is still entitled
to:this amount of stock, and brought an action against the
Bank, but the Bank assert that the plaintiff (10 transfer the
stock, and, therefore, they were not liable. The plaintiff made
an application for permission to inspect the Bank books, and
the Bank offered for inspection all the entries contained in
what they called • the ledger, which was the only one, they
allege, to which plaintiff had any right of access, and that
book they were still ready to submit to plaintiff's inspection.
However, from the nature of some communications which
had taken place between the parties he (the Solicitor-Ge-
neral) understood that the plaintiff still insisted upon her
right to have access to what she called the transfer-books, and
to inspect them.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS—Does the book offered to the
plaintiff's inspection contain all the names of the holders of
stock ?

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said it did, and went on to read
the Act of Parliament, the 20th Geo. 111., c. 16, by which the
Bank were bound to keep certain books, as they were
the agents between the Government and the public
for the transfer and sale of stock, in which certain entries
were to be made, and the Act defined the classes of the
books, amongst which were the ledger or ledgers to which
stockholders had a right of access, and the Bank had always
expressed their readiness to let the plaintiff inspect these
books. That ledger would now be produced, and it would
be proved beyond all doubt that the stock in question was at
one time held by the plaintiff, but that it had been trans-
ferred by her, or by her attorney for her, and that therefore the
account was dosed. If they could not prove that, of course
they would be liable to pay the plaintiff the dividends she
claimed ; but if they could, then the plaintiff could have no
claim. He (the Solicitor-General) understood that some
claim had been made by the plaintiff to inspect what she
called the transfer-book; but the Bank was not bound to
keep any such books as transfer books. Transfers were
made by a document ; but it would be extremely inconve-
nient if the public were to claim a right to inspect these
documents. _

Plaintiff's COUNSEL contended that the rule should be
made absolute, for the offer of the ledger in question for in-
spection had ,never been made at all until the application
for the rule had been made. He also cited several cases in
support of his argument.—Judgment deferred.

BAIL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
(Sittings in Banco.)
EX PARTE - FELL.

Mr. GRAINGER moved for the discharge of Mr. Fell,
a supposed lunatic, who appeared in Court under a
writ of habeas corpus, issued on Thursday last. The
Learned Counsel said that he applied for the dis-
charge of the supposed lunatic on the ground of
the insufficiency of the return. Since the granting of the
writ that return had been formally amended, but he sub-
mitted that any such amendment would be insufficient in
consequence of its being made after the granting of the
writ. -Ile could • find no case similar to the present
one in any of the reports. Under the Bth and 9th Victoria,
chap. 100, it was enacted that no alleged lunatic should be
c mmitted to any lunatic asylum, or house for the reception
of lunatics, unless the time, place, and cause of his com-
mittal shall have been stated, and unless the
alleged lunatic shall have been examined by two
physitians separately, not more than seven days previous
to his committal to the asylum. These requisitions had
not been fulfilled. It would be a monstrous thing if these
measures were omitted in the first instance, as parties
might detain a man a year or two until hey thought
him sufficiently mad, and then admit that his
detention at first was illegal, but contended that the person
was then in a state that would perfectly justify his being
detained further. The original caption of this person could
not be sustained as the return of it was insufficient, and
the parties who made that return had no right to make
a second amended one after the writ of habeas corpus had
been granted, and the person of the lunatic removed from their
custody.

Mr. UNTIIANK, who appeared in support of the validity
of the return, was heard at some length in reply. He con-
tended that the return had substantially fulfilled all that
the Act of Parliament required, and that the lunatic should
be recommitted to his former custody. It could hardly be
supposed that this Court would send an admitted lunatic
forth upon society in consequence of a slight
informality in the return of his caption. Supposing that the
opinion of the Court should go against him on the point
he had submitted, he would call its attention to the fact
that any irregularity or informality in the first return
had been amended by the issue of the second return,
which cured all the defects of the first, and he contended that
that second return was perfectly legal.
Mr. GRAINGER replied briefly upon the arguments of Mr.
Unthack.
__ '

Air. Justice PATTEsors said that he could not think
that, in consequence of any informality in the return,
that persons, stated to be lunatics, and some of whom might
be in a dangerous state, should be discharged. Under all the
facts of the case he was of opinion that the first return of the
person's caption was valid, and that :therefore the supposed
lunatic could not be discharged.

COMMON PLEAS.-(THIS DAY.)
(Sittings in Banco.)
PONTIFEX AND ANOTHER U. WILKINSON.

The LORD Ours' JUSTICE this day gave the decision of
the Court in the above ease, in which the defendant had
moved for a new trial. The case depended principally on
certain letters, and the Court had postponed their decision to
this (lay- in order that they might examine these papers; and
they were of opinion that no rule ought to be granted. The
facts of the case were these :

The plaintiffs, the wel!-known copper and brass-founders,
of Shoe-lane, had agreed, by contract, to supply and fit up
a copper still for Lord Hardwicke's brewery. The sum
agreed upon was not paid at the time specified, and this
action was to recover it. The defendant insisted both at the
trial and on the motion for a new trial, that he had de-
manded more time to pay the sum, and that plaintiffs had
agreed to give more time. In support of this view several
letters from plaintiff to defendant were produced, in which
the former speaks of "the credit I am now giving you."
The opinion of the Court as to these letters, Was., that they
merely referred to the credit which plaintiffs placed in de-
fendant in fixing the still, without first receiving payment,
and not to any credit beyond that agreed on in the contract.
Therefore the jury were right in finding for the plaintiffs, and
the rule ought not to be granted.