Star.
London, England, 1822-04-17 00:00:00

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LAW INTELLICENCE. whit It' In bile pow tn. drive -1,..,
, ration from , charge .
COURT OF CHANCERY, Alga )4.
Jury, observed, that Abe •htester of the vessel • was
The LORD Clllll inettcs, in his to the
RYDER AND OTHERSV.PEMSBRYON.
.3. bound to have made himself ecqnsinted with that
Mr. HART movea for an iuncdon to restreie the arts of the law which mire inunedia;ely reprdid
defendants, Thomas and Edwin Pemberton, from
duties of that situation which he had undertaken
transferring certain Bank Annuities standing in their
to discharge ; and therefore, in point of law, the action
names as executors of their father,-the late Samuel I
lay in its present form. But the question was, had
Pemberton. The testator died in 1803, and left to
there been an injury sustained by the plaintiffs
each of his children, who were eight in number, the .
sum of £4OOO, to be invested in Bank Annuities for through
hat extent? It his mistake on the present occasion • and if'
their use and benefit ; and be appointed as his en-hadso, to w was quite clear that the thing
been done without aoy intention on his part to
tutors his widow and the two defendants. The de- injure the owners of thevessel ; and he was, therefore,
fendants were now the only executors, their mother entitled to a favourable consideration. The vessel had
having died in 1817. The plaintiff was a daughter
brought ham 325 tons of coffee, for every hundred
of the testator, and she complained that her brothers,
of which the plaintiffs received 18s. Now, the Jury
the executors; refused to account to her for the in-
would say if, but for the manner in which
terest of her £4OOO. It might be necessary to in- the coffee
was stowed, she have carried home so much ;
form the Court, that an injunction of a similar nature and if not, then they would set off so much of the
to that now prayed for had been granted at the suit
freight as was hereby increased, against the amount
of a sister of the plaintiff. The parties, however, had
of the fine, and find a verdict for the plaintiffs to the
now come to a compromise, and were about to dis- amount of the balance, if it left any ; if it left no
solve that injunction, which rendered the present ap- balance, they would find for the defendant. But it
plication necessary.—lnjunction granted.
appeared to him (the Learned Judge) that the increase
BARTON V. --"--.
Mr. HEALD moved for a writ ,re axed regeo under did not equal the whole fine. The Jury, however,
would form their own calculation, and find their ver-
the following circumstances :—Some time in 1821 dict accordingly.
the plaintiff, Elizabeth Barton, was married to Mr. The Jury, after a few minutes' deliberation, found
George Barton, upon which occasion a marriage a verdict for the plaintiffs—Damages 2031. ss.
settlement was drawn up between the parties, in which THORNTON AND OTHERS V. BUSK.
the bridegroom stipulated that the sum of £2OO, with This was an action on a breach of contract. The
accruing interest, should be invested in Government plaintiffs, Messrs. Thornton and Co. are merchants
or Other securities, for the benefit of the bride. The trading to Russia. In November, 1820, they con-
defendant, whom helrould not at present name, for tracted with the defendant for the sale of a quantity
reasons which must 1* obvious to the Court, was ap- of tallow, to be shipped from their house at St. Peters-
pointed trustee under this settlement, and was at this burgh in the month of. July folloiring, by a vessel,
moment possessed of £209. Bs. which the plaintiff the name of which they would notify to him as soon
claimed as her money, and of which she was appre- as they leained it. The tallow having been shipped
hensive of being altogether deprived, since she found in June by the Comet, they advised the defendant
that the defendant had actually embarked with the accordingly; but upon finding that, by the terms of
whole of his family on beard the ship Mary, with the the contract, (which did not run in the ordinary form
intention of proceeding to the United States to settle with the words aon Or before,") that the tallow was to
there. The ship would sail immediately, when it be shipped in July,Alley apprised him of the mistake,
cleared the Custom-house.—lnjunction granted. informing him at the same time that he might have
COURT OF KING'S BENCH, APRIL 16. his choice of either the tallow conveyed by the Comet,
MURRAY V. KING AND ANOTHER. or tallow to be shipped by some other vessel in the
This was an action on a bond for £2600, condi• month of' July. A fall, however, having taken place
boned for the payment of a bill of exchange for in the market, and the defendant supposing that the
plaintiffs' mistake had rendered the contract unbind-
£l3oo. The defence relied upon was, that the con-
sideration of the bill partly consisted of other bills, Ing upon him, declined to abide by it, and refused to
for which an usurious discount was taken. The usury
take dietetic*. The plaintiffs, therefore, disposed
sworn to, however, was only 12 per cent. while the of it at a loss, and broug)it this action to recover the
defendant's plea alleged it to have been 15. amount of the difference between the sum for which
Mr. CAMPBELL, therefore, on the part of the plain- they actually sold it, and that for which the defendant
tiff, contended the evidence did not support the plea. bad contracted to purchase it.
Mr. SCARLETT, for the defendants, argued that The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE was clearly of opinion
the plea was substantially proved, by shewing that that the plaintiffs had performed the conditions of the
more than the legal interest had been received, which contract on their parts, and that the defendant was
was sufficient without proving the precise sum set bound, in point of law, to adhere to it. Under his
forth by the pleader. Lordship's direction, therefore, the Jury found for the
The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, however, held that it Plaintiffs—Damages £247.
was necessary, in order to support the plea, to prove LONDON SESSIONS.
the usury to the full extent alleged in the pleading. A Solicitor, named Church, was indicted for an
Verdict for the plaintiff, £l3OO. assault upon a Mrs. Gent, whose house he entered
HERRING AND ANOTHER V. GOWLAND, EXECUTOR OF for the purpose of levying a distress for rent.
MAMMON, DECEASED. The prosecuuix stated that the defendant knocked
This action was brought by Messrs. Herring and at her door, and when it was opened, rushed in, and
Richardson against the executor of Wm. Harrison,late behaved in the most violent manner. She was in an
Master of the ship Francis and Eliza, of which they advanced state of pregnancy at the time, and was
were the owners, upon an alleged breach.of contract. shocrced in such a manner as to render her situation
The circumstances were these :—ln 1814 the above peculiarly alarming. He also drew blood from her
vessel was employed by Government to convey con-
1
arm, although he had no other business in the house,
victs to New South Wales. On her return she was than to distrain for £3. 15s.
to take up a cargo of coffee at Batavia. She accord- A woman who lodged in the house said she heard
ingly sailed from London under the command of the the prosecutrix cry out Murder !'and on going down
testator, with the convicts on board, in the month of stairs, saw her almost fainting, and her arm bleeding.
June in that year. While on her voyage she was Upon the part of the defendant witnesses were
called who reversed the story. They declared Mr.
taken by an American vessel, and continued in the
enemy's possession for 24 hours. They then aban- Church had never acted with the slightest violence;!
-
doned her, and the convicts had her in charge, until, but the prosecutrix had given the greatest provoca
through the exertions of the Captain, who procured tion, both with her tongue and her actions. Mr.'
Church, both before and after the assault, offered to
the assistance of an English man of war, everything
out- take the rent at a shilling a week. But the prosecu-
was again set to rights : she then completed her
ward voyage, and landed the convicts ; after which trix rejected that proposition, and took up a cleaver,
she sailed for Batavia, and there took a cargo of and swore she would chop the first man that laid{
hold of a chair or table in that house. The prosecu- '
coffee on board, consigned to Bowen and Co. of Lon-
don. The coffee was in bags, but when stowing it in trix never complained of a blow or a bruise while
the vessel, the Captain, after the first tier of bags was the defendant was in the house.
laid, had a number of them cut open along theseams, The Jury instantly acquitted the defendant.
and the coffee which they contained poured over the The Rucoaeza hoped, that if the rent was not yet
others, in order to fill the interstices, whereby the paid, the present prosecution would not induce the
vessel was rendered capable of containing a greater defendant to be severe upon the poor woman, whose
quantity than if it had been all allowed to remain in anger had led her into the error of misrepresenting
the bags. In about three weeks after the vessel left what had taken place.
Batavia, Captain Harrison died. In September, 1816, MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.
she arrived in the East India Docks, upon which the Yesterday, these Sessions commenced before Mr.
loose coffee was immediately seized by the Excise CONST, the Chairman. and a Bench of Magistrates.
officers, as having been stowed in bulk, contrary to Before the regular business of the day commenced,
the provisions of the sth of Geo.III, chap. 42, which, Mr. ALLEY made an application to the Court in sup-
confirmed by subsequent Statutes, requires that all port of a petition agreed to by Select Vestries that
coffee imported to this country shall be stowed in had been held in St. Mary-la-Bonne and other Pa-
bags, casks, cases, or chests, containing 1121bs. each. riches, for the purpose of obtaining an order for the
The coffee thus seized filled 2599 bags ; for the re- inspection of the receipts and expenditure of the
lease of which, after having memorialized the Com- county rates. The Learned Gentleman stated, that
missioners several times in vain, the plaintiffs paid a
fine of £658 ; and to recover this sum, as the penalty several applications had been made on the part of the
was the consequence of the illegal act of the Captain Vestries to Mr. Richards, and other Officers of the 1
in stowing the coffee in bulk, the present action was Court, for the ;ape-1, all of which had been refused ;1
and he considered that as those Officers had so acted,
brought against his executor.
The sum received by the plaintiffs from Govern- the Court, who bad authority over such persons,
ought now to make the order. The Learned Counsel
meet for the use of the vessel to convey the convicts
including £llOO demurrage, was £4900. The freight
convicts, thought it
highly
necessary, for the ends of justice,
that the world should know how the public money
of the coffee was £4.510, and the tonnage £377. had of late been squandered. Here he rematked on
Mr. ScAnt.Err, on behalf of the defendant, con- the very sudden and extraordinary disappearance of
tended that the plaintiffs had no right to recover, for the County Treasurer. And when it was seen by
they had not proved that they had sustained any loss. whom the petition was signed—by men of the highest
By stowing the coffee in bulk, the testator had been rank—the motion ought to meet with attention.
enabled to increase the cargo considerably. Now, the 'The CHAIRMAN said, that the signatures that were
freight received by the plaintiffs, amounting to about attached to the petition would have no more weight
13s. per bag, and the fine only to ss. they had not w ith him in the administration of justice,than were they
sitesen that the increase effected by the stowage in the signatures of the most humble individuals. Se-
this manner did not cover the full amount of the fine. veral notices had been served on him for the purpose,
And certainly the plaintiffs were not entitled to much both at home and abroad ; in one case, actually, he
&your from the Jury, when they endeavoured to was sitting at dinner with some friends. The service
sweep away from the testator's family the hard-earned had been made with such solemnity, that his ac-
fruits of his labour, to preserve from diminution the quaintaaces thought It must have been nothing less
eight or nine thousand pounds which they realized than an order to take him to the Tower. He was
from a voyage of two years, performed under cir- aware that the object of Mr. Alley's application
cumstances of extraordinary merit on his part, and in `would certainly be obtained by procuring a ntanda-'
which he had lost his life; and merely because he saris from the Court of King's Bench ; and if he (Mr.
had done that which he thought was most for. their Alley) was to renew his application on Thursday, the
advantage, being ignorant of the existence of this re- ' appeal day of the Sessions, the Court would do every
gulation ; notice of which, according to the evidence, thing in its power to afford the parishes the informa-
had only-been gives in 1815 by the Commissioners, tion they sought for. But he must rcluark, that itt