The Dickinson press., 1906-07-07
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 We're born
within a few minutes of each other. lie
made a will that his property in Aus
tralia should 60 to whichever of the
two son 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
witch, 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 eem q ridiculous ques-
ton, but nice shades Of meaning are
involved, and a ase which turned up
on it went through two or three courts
Of law. A lady sent an order for a doz-
en- eggs to a dairyman, and he sent her
ducks eggs. She sent them back as not
being what she ordered, but be refused
to take them. She, in turn, declined to
feep 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 for
Ii. 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-
rtes' or even rattlesnakes'. Ducks eggs,
it was decided, were not eggs in the
ordinary meaning Of the term.
Are the grandchildren Of q man also
his children? In the legal. sense this
question Is not so absurd as it looks,
and some time ago it was most serious.
~ 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 it down that "the father and the
grandfather, the mother and the grand
mother and the children of any pool
person, being Of sufficient ability, shall
relieve and maintain any such poor per
son."
The argument was that, according tt
the context, grandchildren were to be
reckoned as children for this purpose
just as grandparents were reckoned al
parents. On the other side it was ar
gued that If grandchildren were chill
dren then great-grandchildren were
children also and that a man might IL
this way be called upon to support hi.
father and mother, his four grandpar
ents, his eight great-grandparents ant
as many grandchildren and great-grand
children as he might be lucky or I'm
lucky enough to possess.
Is skinned milk milk? A man asket
for a glass Of milk to drink and wa
given skinned milk, and the purveyo
was fined for it. But in a higher cour
the decision was reversed, it being con
tended at the time that SKINNED mill
was really much more milk than mill
that was not SKINNED, since the latte
contained something that was not mill
at all-that is, cream.-lpndon TitrBita