Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-09-22
QUEER PROBLEMS OF LAW.
Cases With Which English Judges and
Lawyers Have Struggle.

Lawyers HaVo otTu99io'
Hundreds Of years Of test cases
have not yet elucidated all the pos
sible points of difficulty in the Eng
lish law.
Here is a remarkable problem with
which the Blackburn lawyers have
Just been confronted: An English
gentleman had twin sons who were
born within a few minutes Of each
other. He made a will that his
property in Australia should go to
whichever Of the two sons arrived
at the age of 21 first.
The younger Of the two emigrated
to Australia. while the other one re-
mained in England, and the former
was still in the Antipodes at the
time of his coming Of age. Now,
Australian time Is some hours in ad-
vance of Greenwich, and, therefore,
the young man out there was 21 be-
fore his elder brother at home.
Which Of these two brothers Is le-
gally entitled to the property? The
question has not yet been decided.
and in the meantime readers may ex-
ercise their own acumen upon 1t.
Are eggs eggs. or are only hens
eggs eggs? This may seem a RI
diculous question, but nice shades of
meaning are involved, and a case
which turned upon 1t went through
two or three courts Of law. A lady
sent an order for a dozen eggs to a
dairyman and he sent her ducks
eggs. She sent them back as not
being what she ordered, but he re-
fused to take them. She, In turn,
declined to keep them, and some
time elapsing between their journeys
from the house to the shop, the eggs
went bad, and eventually the shop
keeper sued the lady for Is. 3d., their
value.
The county court judge ordered
her to pay, declaring that ducks
eggs were as much eggs as any 9TH
ers, but the lady appealed and kings
bench reversed the decision on the
ground that when a party ordered
eggs hens eggs were meant, and II
any other contention were admitted
any kind of eggs might be sent,
such as pigeons, canaries', or even
rattlesnakes'. Ducks eggs, 1t was de-
cided, were not eggs in the ordinary
meaning of the term.
Are the grandchildren Of a man
also his children? In the legal sense
this question is not so absurd as II
looks, and some time ago 1t was
most seriously and laboriously con-
tended in the courts that according
to act of parliament they were.
The particular act in question
passed in the reign Of the late Queen
Victoria, laid 1t down that 1.-THE
father and the grandfather, the
mother and the grandmother. and
the children Of any poor person being
of sufficient ability. shall relieve and
maintain any such poor person."
The argument was that, according
to the context, grandchildren were
to be reckoned as children for this
purpose, just as grandparents were
reckoned as parents. On the other
side 1t was argued that II grand
children were children then great
grandchildren were children also, and
that a man might in this way be call
ed upon to support his father and
mother, his four grandparents his
eight great-grandparents and as many
grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren as he might be lucky or un-
lucky enough to possess.
Is SKINNED milk milk? A man
asked for a glass Of milk to drink
and was given skinned milk, and
the purveyor was fined for it: but
In a higher court the decision was
reversed, 1t being contended at the
time that SKINNED milk was really
much more milk than milk that was
not skinned, since the latter con-
tanned something that was not milk
at all-that is, cream.-Tit-Bits