The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-11 00:00:00

. .
it
tij btittiid tilht thr<t; 016 toti.?,.t.a WaS En grit
dillicellies—that, in fact, it wilt, nearly insolvent, which_
actually was; and, therefore, the cunning of his scheme woa.
apparent. What he intended, by means of the secret dissbe
lution, was to get out of any liabilities which 'night.
incurred subsequent to the date of that dissoluttne"y,
if things should happen to go wrong, but that, if t 9„,
went right, he wound be entitled to keep the secret disse'l
tion in his pocket and to take his share of the profits; an
in this way, maned with this double scheme,
Dellinne continued to pursue his course from '37 (in' .ha
the time of the stoppage. The jury would find that a Ls
e,
concern went on, doing a considerable quantity of hob',
Deflinne hoped. by means of the new debts which were bout
contracted, to wipe off the old ones, and that this contienehue
until the beginning of the year '4l, and, indeed, down tt? the
it was' ti
time of the stoppage. Ii '4l, however, the exigencies of
t
firm became exceedingly pressing ; there was a great demon,
for money ; trade got bad; and then Deflinne manifesto!.
the strongest apprehension and dislike to a commission of
bankruptcy being taken out against Todd, lest au eSP°3
should take place ; but, while be manifested this apprehen:
sion, he, in the year '37, refused to comply with the sugges.
lion of his uncle, to have the concern wound up
The difficulties of the concern grew thicker as the. year,
and stoell2
drew near ; and, in the May of that year, Deflinne advise.
Todd to buy in goods to mend the estate, and to stop Or.
ment on the Ist of August. On the 4th of June he wrote a
letter from London, to Todd. Certain acceptances were then
falling due ; and, before Deflinne went to London, it.waal:
ranged that Todd should borrow money from the plait.%
The money was accordingly borrowed. In the letter vr"!;',
had been written from London, Deflinne spoke of Todd 5
honesty, said he would withdraw his guarantee from ths
bank and put an end to the financial embarrassments
of the concern, and he enclosed a circular which be
directed to be sent out to the creditors. Todd itrevedv;
ately called his creditors together, executed an assignmet"
for their benefit, and then a commission of bankruptcy °,35.0
taken out. Deflinne made every effort to carry the
Of assignees, conscious as he must have been of the !IMO'
of his participation in the concern. and canvassed ru
!
creditors for that purpose. After that, he was afraid
Todd would develop all he. knew about the concern', en'
at one time, said—" If it had not been for me, the ere"
ditorswould never have trusted von, Todd ; " and this was
absolutely and truly the fact. The points of law which tb:
case involved were few and simple. He (Mr. Baines) to
it as a perfectly clear proposition of law that where a person
had been a dormant partner in a concern, that was to soli
where his name appeared not in the concern, if he was Ire
known as a partner, he might retire at any time without ro.
of liability for any subsequent engagements of partnership'
but that if he was known as a partner, and acted se as to be
known, he never could defend himself against any obliLhs
Lions which that partnership might contract, unless
creditors had distinctly and individually received notice Wan
he had departed from the concern. The principle bad bee;
laid down in Mr. Justice Storey's work on partnership,.ta-
-247, that where a partner was dormant and unknown,
to creditors creditors was unnecessary; but that where he was know"'
notice was necessary. The learned counsel referred to the
case of " Carter v. Walley," in Barnwell and AdolPliuks;
page 11, in which Mr. Justice Littledale said that if t";
plaintiff knew the defendant to have been a partner at sna
time, notice of retirement from the firm was necessary ; an
then contended that Mr. Dellinne's liability continued, evel
if he were not a partner after 1837, unless he sent notice
the dissolution to his creditors. But no such notice-
been sent to the plaintiff; not a servant about the establish'
tnent had the slightest notion of the dissolution ; every 8 ite
believed Mr. Deflinne to continue a member of the firm; 1,
the same books were used after the alleged dissolution whic;
bad been used before. If, then, the jury were satisfied that
Deflinne was either a member of the firm down to the tirne
of the stoppage, or that he conducted himself in such
cs
manner as that the plaintiff must have known and believed
him to be a member of the firm, the plaintiff would be en-
titled to a verdict ; and, in giving that verdict, the jury
would give it strictly in consonance not only with the hiS'
but the justice and necessity of the case.
Part
The examination of witnesses to prove the case on the 0-.
of the plaintiff occupied the attention of the court until it"
rising, at seven o'clock.