Smyrna times., 1905-10-25
QUEER PROBLEMS OF LAW.
Cases With Which English Judges
and Lawyers Have Struggled.

Cases with which English Judges
and Lawyers Have Struggled.
Hundreds Of years of test cases have
not yet elucidated all the possible
points of difficulty in the English law.
Here is a remarkable problem with
which the Blackburn lawyers have just
been confronted: An English gentle.
man had twin sons who were born
within few minutes of each other. He
made a will that his property in Aus.
tralia should go to whichever of the
two sons arrived at the age of twenty.
one first
The younger of the two emigrated to
Australia, while the other one remained
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 advance of Green
wich, and therefore the young man
out there was twenty-one before his
elder brother at home. Which of these
two brothers is legally entitled to the
property? The question has not yet
been decided, and in the meantime
readers may exercise their own acu-
men upon it.
Are eggs eggs, or are only hens eggs
eggs? This may seem a ridiculous ques-
ton, but nice shades Of meaning are
involved, and a case which turned up
on it went through two or three courts
Of law. A lady sent an order for doz-
en- eggs to dairyman, and he sent her
ducks eggs. She sent them back as not
being what she ordered, but he refused
to take them. She, in turn, declined to
keep them, and, some time elapsing be-
tween their journeys from the house to
the shop, the eggs went bad, and even.
tually the shopkeeper sued the lady fol
Is. 3D., their value.
The county court judge ordered her
to pay, declaring that ducks eggs were
as much eggs as any others. But the
lady appealed, and kings bench re-
versed the decision ON the ground that
when a party ordered eggs hens eggs
were meant, and if any other conten-
ton were admitted any kind of eggs
might be sent, such as pigeons, cana
ries' or even rattlesnakes'. Ducks eggs
1t was decided, were not eggs in the
ordinary meaning Of the term.
Are the grandchildren of a man alsC
his children? In the legal sense this
| question is not so absurd as it looks
and some time ago it was most serious
! ly and laboriously contended in the
courts that according to act of parlia
ment they were.
The particular act in question, passed
in the reign of the late Queen Victoria
laid 1t down that 1.-The father and tn,
grandfather, the mother and the grand
mother and the children of any poo
person, being Of sufficient ability, shal
relieve and maintain any such poor per
son."
The argument was that, according t
the context, grandchildren were to b
reckoned as children for this purpose
just as grandparents were reckoned a
parents. On the other side it was al
gued that if grandchildren were chi
dren then great-grandchildren wer
children also and that a man might i
this way be called upon to support hi
father and mother, his four grandpal
ents, his eight great-grandparents an
as many grandchildren and great-granC
children as he might be lucky or III
lucky enough to possess.
Is SKINNED milk milk? A man aske
for a glass of milk to drink and wa
given skinned milk, and the purveyC
was fined for it. But in higher coul
} the decision was reversed, it being col
tended at the time that skinned mil
was really much more milk than mi
that was not skinned, since the latt,
contained something that was not mi
at all-that is, cream-LondOn Tit-Bit