The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-26
LEGAL rNTHLLraHNcn.
The Mercantile Library and the Sunday Ques-
ItOn.

The Mercantile Library and the Sunday Ques-
ItOu.
Court Of Quarter Sessions
This morning Amos Briggs ESQ.,, appeared in
court and filed an answer in behalf of the re-
spondents in the case of the Commonwealth er
retd.ione John e; Granger VS.. The Directors of
the Mercantile Library Company. Last Satur-
day, in accordance with the petition OF the re-
later, Judge Read granted motion for rule
on defendants to show cause why an alternative
writ of mandamus shall not issue, returnable to
the first Monday of April, 1870, commanding the
said respondents to keep the Mercantile Library
open as reading-room on every Sunday be-
tween the hours of and o'clock in the after
noon, or signify to the Court some reason to the
contrary.
The answer of the respondents, after setting
forth their standing in court, declares that they
are advised by their COUNSEL and believe, and
hence so allege, that there is no power, nor was
there at the time of granting said rule, vested in
said stockholders, enabling them to order the
said directors to open said library on Sunday
The action of the meeting of stockholders, at
which but one hundred and twenty-six were
present, ordering the directors to keep the
library open on Sunday, is then recited, together
with the action of the board IN providing for a
vote upon the question during the month of
April, as already given at length in these
! columns.
! The respondents then say that at the next
| meeting of the board after the passage of the
resolution ordering the library to be kept open
| on Sunday, and at which It's passage was COM
directors the petition OF two hundred and thirty
stockholders, hastily procured, protesting
| against the opening of the library on Sunday,
| and requesting the directors not to open the
same on that day; thus suggesting to the
directors the eXpediency of obtaining fuller
| expression of the sense of the stockholders in
| the premises before they should take action
| thereon. Also, that the charter of said COM
pany provides that the said Board of Directors
shall have full power to make and alter such
| rules and bylaws as they may deem necessary
| for the well-being and due management of the
| affairs of the company" and that in accordance
| Herewith the board have established rules for
| the opening of the library.
The answer further says that the respondents
are advised, and accordingly suggest that the
| opening of said library on Sunday would be la
violation of section ] of the act of April 22d
1874, which prohibits the performance of worldly
| employment on that day.
In view of all these circumstances the re-
| spondents deny that it is or was their duty to
| open the library on Sunday, and pray that the
| court will discharge the rule for an alternative
| mandamus, at the cost of the relator
Judge Read subsequently delivered a short
| verbal opinion refusing the rule, upon two
| grounds-frst, that this Court had no jurisdic-
| tion over the matter, this not being original
action; and, second, if this Court had jurisdic-
! ton, yet this was proper case for the equity
| jurisdiction of the Common Pleas, and there
| fore the Nisi Prius would not take cognizance
| of it.