Star.
London, England, 1806-08-07 00:00:00

LAW INTEL&IGENCE.

COURT OF CHANCBILY, AUGUST
HODGKINS aIID"WISt V. I. ticortr.
The vrife of the plaintiff is heir at 1.4 k. to a emir,
&table elate in Nottinghainatiie ; the Defendant is
trollee to the fame. This was an application to corn.
pel the defendant to place in the bands of the Clerk
of the Court a certain deed for the infdeetion of the
Plaintiffs. In the year 1646, Henry Hanley, Efq. was
feized of the effete in quefiimi, and tonveyed it in his
lifetime to tm flees to petfr rm feveral charitable pur-
.poles ; of there ti dices the defendant ks the reprefen-
tative. The land thus difpnfed or, was of about the
value of 1201. per ann. and one of the tiles to which it
was to be applied was, that a preacher °mold be fup-
ported by the donation of 201. a year, to read divine
fervice to the inh,bitants of the town of Nottingham;
&fides this, eflabliflimints were formed for the main-
tenance of a number of poor perfons. In the deed of
conveyance it was Itipulated, that the osierplits,if any,
from the produce of the eitate. fhoold he paid to the
heir at law ; and that in cafe the obj.:fl I of the troll
thould not be performed, or kept op, after the death
of Mr. Hanley, then the funk to be applied to that
charitable purpofe fhould devolve in the pet ton enti-
tled to the elate by the operation of law. In the cafe
now before the Court, one of the flimila ions had not
been credited, viz to manftain a MitiiiterF:r Notting-
ham, and a hill was filed for the raids c, which, if a mi.
Wier had been privided,writild have been paid tohins.
To profecute with effea this runt, it was neceffary that
a deed of conveyance, dated O&. 3, 1646, Ihould be
infp_Olech and for that purpofe chi, motion was made.
RICH•ILDS and HEALD fupported the
application, no the general principles of equity.—
'They laid, that in the defendant's anrwer to the
bill, he had fct out the deed itfelf, but that the
Plaintiff% had a right to inept& the original con.
'entice, not becaufe they imputed perjury to the
sassier, but becaufe the heirefs at law, for the fake
of argument. was competent to intend that crime.—
In cafes of charity, the Court of Chancery was al-
ways difpoled to lean in favour of the benevolent in-
teutim. This had been done in the cafe of the At-
torney General and Jackfon, br the late Loud Chan-
cellor (Lord ELooto); the dedrions in the cafes of
the Earl of Suffolk so Howard, and Bettifon v. Far-
ingdon in 3 Pere Williams, and from all there autho-
rities it was contended, that the objea of the motion
'lmola be granted
Mr. Cows'', for the Defendant, thought this one
of the moil extraordinary applications that had ever,
from the earlielt times, been made within the walls of
Lincoln's Inn. The Plaintiffs were quite miflaken
when they confidered the deed in quellion to be a
decd of null, for it was a conveyance of the eflate to
the anceflors of the Defendant, charged with various
charitable purpores, and the forplirs was to come to
the bands of the perfon to whom the cßate was given.
The motion in itself was quite unprecedented, and
the Plaintiff fought to deprive a party of what he had
quietly enjoyed for 130 years. This application could
not be countenanced by his Lnrdthip, for a Court of
Chancery could never compel a party to darn,' its
own title. In the cafe of Shaftelbury o. Arrowlinith
in arli Vefey, Junior, Lord ELLINISOIOUGH had al
fated, that an heir at law had not a (park of equity
to examine the deeds of his opponent, efpecially when,
upon the face of the anfwer, more had beenvoluntauly
given than could be demanded in a Court of Equity.
The Loan CIIANCSLLOR wondered that a moti-n
of this nature mould be made. Although the Conti
might, in fame cafes, fupport deeds for charitable
tiles, yet in this cafe no fuch plea could be urged, iota-
much as the rum to be recovered was not applicable to
loch purpofe, bit was merely to be put in the pocket
of a private iudividital. His Lot dfhip never had and
never would oblige a party, by the produeliou of a
deed, to dearoy his own title.— Ref tired.