Star.
London, England, 1821-05-30 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF CHANCERY, MAY 29.

1111 SARI. OF WESTMEATII V. THE COUNTESS OF
WESTMEATH.

The LORD CHANCELLOR gave judgment this day
in this case. It was a motion on the part of the noble
plaintiff, praying for an Injunction to restrain the
noble defendant from levying on his estates in Ire-
land, the amount of an annuity granted by him Co.
the Countess on certain conditions. His Lordship,
in the first instance, read over the principal allega-
tions in the Bill, and then proceeded to remark on
the various parts of the answers put in by the defend.
ants, and 'on which the most material points more
immediately rested. The present Bill, he said, was
filed by the noble plaintiff against his Countess and
several others, some of whom were her trustees; and
it prayed that two indentures, the one bearing date
the 18th of December, 1817, and the other the 18th
of May, 1818, might be delivered up to him, or that
they might be set aside; but in the event of his Lord-
ship being of opinion that this could not be done, it
proceeded to pray that the Court would decide what
sum ought to be paid to the Countess of Westmeath,
and the other persons named in the pleadings. The
present question, he observed, did not come before
him on the Hearing of the case," but on a motion
for an " Injunction," and, as he had before stated,
referred principally to two deeds, which, it was con-
tended, ought to be delivered lip or cancelled. On
the part of the plaintiff it was contended, that if the'
' deeds in question were not delivered up, they ought,
at least, to be cancelled, as they had been obtained
by undue means; while on the other side it was as
strongly contended that they were void. Under these
circumstances, he had only to observe, that his ob-,
servations would be confined to the nature of the
deeds in question. His Lordship then noticed the
various covenants in the deeds, which he recapitu-
lated. Among them were the -following r—That of
£OOO per annum so the Countess, in the event of
her surviving the Earl of Westmeath; that, relative
to the disputes unhappily existing between them, the
agreement to live apart, the pi ovisicn to be made for
tie children, in The event of an amicable ar ranement
taking place between the parties subsequently, and
for any increase of children that might take place in
consequence ; the covenant relative to the powers of
Mr. Sheldon to raise (in the event of the Countess
not finding it convenient or advisable to live with the
Earl) a sum adequate to the maintenance of herself'
and her children on rent charges ; the covenant rela-
tive to the children being allowed, in the event of a;
separation, to be under the guidance of their mother;
and that Mr. Sheldon should be'invested with power
to raise a sufficient sum for the maintenance of any
children that might be subsequently born. This deed,
his Lcrdship observed, contemplated a separation ;
and the question was, whether the deeds were, or
were not, to be null and void, in the event of the
parties coming together; or whether they were to be
suspended only, during the time of their separation,
should they afterwards come to an amicable arrange-
ment ? The separation, however, it appeared, was
only to take place in the event of gross abuse, or ill-
usage on the part of the Earl towards his wife; and,
after some observations on the law and equity of the
case, he said, the difficulty here was, that the Bill
was not filed by the Countess of Westmeath to have
the deeds carried into execution, but on the part of
the Earl to have them delivered up, &c. Now, look-
ing at all the cases that had taken place, which bore
any relation to the present subject, he was firmly of
opinion, that there was no law that would warrant a
husband and wife, in entering into any agreement,
to absolve each or either of them from their duty as
parents. His Lordship then adverted to various cases
which bore on the question at issue, and remarked,
that it was difficult to dispose of documents of the
nature of the present. It was true, that in the policy
of the law the deeds in question might be void ; but
was there anything in the present case to prove that
they might, or might not, also be void in equity ?
With this view of the case, he thought the most pro-
per course to pursue would be to send the case to a
Court of Law, where its merits could more properly
be decided on ; at the same time leaving it open to
the parties, after the issue had been tried, to again
apply to the Court. If the deeds were in themselves
worth anything, they would enjoin a suit in the Ec-
clesiastical Court.

Mr. BLARE said, there was'a suit now pending in
that Court for the restitution of conjugal rights, ...hick
the Countess of Westmeath meant to meet.
A short conversation ensued, at the close of which
the LORD CHANCELLOR made an order in the terms
above stated, directing an issue at law to be tried ;
at the same time refraining from disposing of the ap-
plication for an Injunction, until that was disposed of.