The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1906-02-24
QUEER PROBLEMS OF LAW.


Hundreds of years Of test cases have
not yet elucidated all the possible
points of difficulty in the English law.
Here is 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 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 ridiculous ques-
tion, but nice shades of meaning are
involved, and case which turned UP
on it went through two or three courts
Of law. A lady sent an order for doz-
en- eggs to da!ryman, and he sent her
ducks eggs. She sent them back rs not
being what she ordered, but he refused
to take them. She, in turn, declined to
keep them, and, some time elaps;ng be-
tween their journeys from the house to
the shop, the eggs went bad, and even
tually the shopkeeper sued the lady for
1s. 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 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,
it was decided, were not eggs in the
ordinary meaning Of the term.
Are the grandchildren of 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
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 it down that "the father and the
grandfather, the mother and the grand
mother and the children Of any poor
person, being Of sufficient ability, shall
relieve and maintain any such poor per-
son."
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 it was ar-
gued that if grandchildren were chill
dren then great-grandchildren were
| children also and that man might in
this way be called upon to support his
father and mother, his four grandpar-
| ents, his eight great-grandparents and
as many grandchildren and great-grand-
children as he might be lucky or un-
lucky enough to possess.
Is SKINNED milk milk? A man asked
for glass Of milk to drink and was
given SKINNED milk, and the purveyor
was fined for 1t. But in a higher court
the decision was reversed, it being con.
tended at the time that skinned milk
was really much more milk than milk
that was not skinned, since the latter
contained something that was not milk
at all-that is, cream.-fondon Tit-Bits