The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-04-22 00:00:00

TIE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

WINDLE RICHARDSOM

This action was tried yesterday, before E. James, Esq.,
at the County Court, in this town.
Mr. Higgin, barrister, appeared for the plaintiff, and
Mr. Almond, solicitor, for the defendant.
The action was brought to recover £5O upon contract,
that the defendant for reward, as a carrier, for hire re-
ceived certain goods belonging to the plaintiff, to be car-
ried from Liverpool to Calcutta, undertook to deliver the
same, but neglected to do so, to the damage of the
plaintiff.
Mr. Higgin stated that the action was upon contract,
arising out of a bill of lading. In December, 1845, the
plaintiff shipped by the Fairy Queen, of which the defen-
dant was captain, 13 cases of sherry, 13 cases of pale
sherry, and 14 cases of brandy, of the value of £44
Bs. 6d. The cases were consigned to J. E. Cole, at
Calcutta, but on the arrival of the ship in that port
the consignee was not to be found, and, in conse-
quence, an advertisement was inserted in the paper,
giving notice to the consignee to come forward and claim
the goods according, to the usual custom, and they
were never given up except upon production of the
bill of lading. In this case, however, the goods were
given up, as he understood, without the production of
such document, to a native of some such name as Randon
George, a wharfinger, who gave a receipt merely for the
goods from the captain. The plaintiff had never received
the proceeds of the goods, nor could he discover what had
become of them ; and it was not until after considerable
expense and trouble that he, at length, obtained from the
consignee an endorsement of the bill of lading to himself.
The plaintiff was then called. He stated that he was
a wine and spirit merchant in this town. He proved that
in December, 1845, he shipped some wine and brandy to
Calcutta, consigned to Mr. J. E. Cole, and produced the
bill of lading ; that he had not received any payment for
the shipment, nor heard anything of it. At the latter end
of 1849, or beginning of 1850, saw Mr. Cole, who had
heard nothing of it.
In cross-examination by Mr. ALMOND, the witness
said he had been a wine and spirit merchant since 1637—
was unfortunate in 1841, and obtained his certificate about
the end of that year, or the beginning of the following.
J. N. Cole is a brother of the consignee : he is now in
London. In 1845 there was a house in Liverpool, of the
name of Cole, manaced by Frank Cole. Mr. Bremeau
wrote out the bat of lading. He was then a clerk to wit-
ness, but is now a partner with witness. Does not know
that the consignee is now a bankrupt. Mr. J. W.
Cole, the shipper, was bankrupt about three years
ago. The defendant had been several times in Liverpool
since 1845. In March, 1850, had only one of the four
bills of lading in his possession ; two had been sent to the
consignee, one was retained by witness, and one the cap-
tain had. In 1842 sent out by the Georgina, Captain
Williams, who ascertained that a Mr. Crag had obtained
possession of the goods. In 1850 applied to the owners
of the Fairy Queen for payment of the goods, but they
refused.
A letter, written by the captain to the plaintiff, was
then put in, detailing the mode in which he had acted
with the goods on discovering in Calcutta that Mr. Cole,
the consignee, was not to be found. They had been de-
ivered to a party who represented himself to be his agent.
Mr. ALMOND contended that for various reasons the
action could not be sustained. First, the contract by the
bill of lading was not with the present plaintiff, but
between J. W. Cole as shipper, and J. E. Cole as shipper.
[The bill of lading having been handed to his Honour,
this was found to be so.]
His HoNoun asked who would be the proper party to
sue ?
Mr. ALMOND said, either the shipper or the consignee ;
but in this case J. W. Cole was put forward as the shipper
of the goods, and not until 1850, when a question arose as
to whether the goods were lost, did the plaintiff step in
and say he was the owner, thereby contradicting the
written contract, which it was not competent for him to
do ? Mr. Almond quoted a case decided in the
Court of Queen's Bench in support of this point. He then
proceeded to argue that at least the plaintiff ought to
have produced J. W. Cole to show that he was acting as
agent to the plaintiff, or the bill of lading ought to have
stated it. The case was at least one surrounded with sus-
picious circumstances. But there was another ground on
which he argued that the action would not lie. According
to the decision in the case of Evans and Mortlet, goods
consigned to A vested in him the ownership, and he
was the person alone who could maintain the action.
As to the endorsement changing the property in the
goods the learned gentleman quoted the case of Thomp-
son and Domine, 14 Meason and Welsby, p. 403, in
which it was held that the effect of an endorsement
being only the transfer of the right of property iu the
goods, did not transfer the contract itself. If therefore
any action at all was sustainable it must be in trover, and
could not be on contract.

After some observations by Mr. HIGGIN, the learned
judge decided that. the action could not be sustained, and
ordered the plaintiff to be non-suited.

THE CHAPLAINCY-OF TIIE WORKHOUSE.—We under-
stand that the Rev. Drummond Anderson has resigned
the chaplaincy of the workhouse. We have heard that
the Rev. Isaac Holmes is a candidate, with every pros-
pect of success. It will give us much pleasure to hear of
the rev. gentleman's appointment. Mr. Anderson has
been promoted to the incumbency of the new church in
Crown-street.
FATAL ACCIDENT.—A man named Benjamin Mostyn,
in the service of the London and North-Western Company,
met his death at the Lime-street station, at an early hour
yesterday in a very shocking manner. He was employed
about a ' cess" of iron near the line, when a great portion
of the ponderous mass fell, partially burying the unfor-
tunate man. As soon as possible the sufferer was con-
veyed to the Northern Hospital, where every attention was
paid to him, but unhappily his injuries were of so serious
a nature, including fracture of the skull, that surgical
skill was of no avail.
THE NEW GAOL.—The new borough gaol, at Walton,
is fast progressing. The walls are complete, and give an
idea of the vastness of the edifice, within which it is
considered necessary to confine and employ the cri-
minal portion of the - population of this great town.
We believe there will be eight hundred cells, and the
chapel now erecting will be sufficiently spacious to accorn-
mcd its. more than that number. Kirkdale gaol has,
hitherto, been regarded as a large prison, but the new
borough gaol will render it an insignificant building, at
!east without. .
THE COUNTY COURT.—YeSterday the adjourned sit-
tings at this court commenced before Edward James, Esq.,
who again sat as locum tenets: for Mr:Ranishay. Up-
wards of two hundred plaints were entered for hearing
yesterday, and several hundred more still remain to be
heard. The only case of interest tried yesterday was one
which we have reported elsewhere. At half-past seven
his honour adjourned the court until this morning. After
the present sitting the next court is fixed to commence
on Monday, the 19th of May, and the last day for enter-
ing plaints WOW sitting is on the sth of tho isialovonth,