The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-06-01 00:00:00

sessions

IMPORTANT DECISION. —On Friday an action was
brought in the Bristol County Court before the Judge, to
recover a sum of £l7 Bs. due upon a bootmaker's bill. A
solicitor appeared for the defendant, who objected that in-
asmuch as that more than £6O was due from the defendant
to the plaintiff for goods, the plaintiff could not divide his
cause of •action for the purpose of bringing two or more
suits in the county court ; but that if he brought one ac-
tion, which must be for a sum not exceeding £2O, that
such action must be in full of all demands. His Honour,
the Judge, however, ruled that the objection could not be
sustained ; for that, as every order for, and delivery of
goods formed a separate cause of action, a trader might
divide his demand into as many parts as there were causes
of action ; and consequently that if a party owed a trader
£lOO, or any larger sum, for twenty or any other number
of orders, neither of which exceeded £2O, he might bring
as many actions in this court as there were separate orders
or separate causes of action, each under £2O, however
large the aggregate might be.

ASSAULFCASE—Ai the police-court yesterday. six
men, John Best, John Gollagher, Michael Gollagher,
Peter Gollagher, Patrick Mullin, and John Galvin, were
charged by police-officers Thompson, (545,) Heeney(6o2,)
Bull, (42,) and Heeney, (518,) with having, between
three and four o'clock on Sunday morning, been found
fighting in Limekiln-lane, and with having assaulted with
sticks, &c., the whole of the complainants and other
parties when 'they attempted to quell the disturbance.
Three of the officers appeared with their heads bandaged
up, and according to their own evidence, and that of
several witnesses, they were severely maltreated, even to
the danger of their lives. A knob off one of the sticks,
said to have been picked up after the affray, was com-
posed of a large piece of lead, a heavy blow from which
would have given the quietus to any modern Gollob. It
appeared from the defence, that the disturbance com-
menced between two of the prisoners sparring together
more, as they said, in joke, than in earnest. Two and
afterwards more of the officers came up, and used their
sticks, some of them without uniform, and in their shirts,
(having risen out of bed) so that they were not recognised
in their official capacity, and blows being dealt out on
both sides a general melee was the result, in which both
parties received severe contusions. The Golloghars (one
family) called several witnesses to confute the testimony
of the officers, and to some extent appeared to succeed.
The elder of the three, the father, made a good defence,
as did the brothers, who said they could not see their old
parent so beaten. The mother and sister, (the latter a
tine-looking girl,) also spoke to the harsh conduct of the
officers, and the former was herself struck. Tfie old man
had his hand much hurt by a blow from one of the offi-
cers. The officer 518, it appeared had been tampering
with one of the female witnesses, and uttering some
threats against a beer-shop in the neighbourhood, and he
was suspended. • With respect to the prisoners, Mr.
Rushton said he was determined, if possible to put down
such disgraceful affrays, and he committed them all for
trial at the Sessions, intimating, however, that he would
admit the whole of them to biul.