Court Of King's Bench, We...
The Times, 1824-02-19T00:00:00

- . LAW SekPORT This was an action by Ill rs. Baker. a laundreMS,. ag,4 M_st.bir u*re. gory Page Turner; who lhas recently been the subject of a comms sion of lunacy, to recover 59.s8. thec baltirpce duseto her for wash- Mrs.Bus, aLerant n Sr Gegoy'sfamily, proved- tbai the plaitif wahed ine fo the intheyer spccified, and thar her No oe apeaed or he egedan, ad the jury found a verdict This was, an actioDn by the trustees of the Bloomsbury Dispensary, against one of the sureties to a bond,conjitiotted thiat John. Warr,the collector to the institution, shouldduly pay over all monies. John WVarr, the laite collector, bimrself proved that hie received 3141. 3s. 6id. in last year for the use of the society, which he had not paid over, but which, excepting seven guineas paid to a singer at a public dinner, still remained due. His poundage amountedl to 121. on the sums collected. Mlr. NOLANr, for the plaintiff, agreed to asUow the poundage in reduction of d amages. T'he ATTORSrEY.GOENERAL,, for the defendant, read a letter froma himn, givinIg notice to the trustees that he would consider hini. selfiio longer li~ble. The LoRD CInEFr JUSTICE $aid he thioughit this was no de- fence in point of' law: at all events, it could not be set up withoutt being pleaded. Mr. INOLAx begged, a-s couinsel f4r the charity, to state that if the defendant hiad taken steps to exonerate himiself and provide other sureties, the trustees would have willinglyi' discharged him. The jury then fouind a verdict for thei raintiff,and assessed the da- mag s on the breaches assigned at 21141. l3s. The other cases were chiiefly matters of account, and sesrpral were referred to arbitration.- COURT OF C03lNMON PLEAS, FgaB. I11. LIABtCLSTY OF SEa-GEAN~TS -rls TO THE PAYMENT OFP OORS' RATS.-SEIRGEANT LENS V. 111ONWNE AND BUR'INELL. This was an action brought against thie overseers of the parish of St. Dunistan in the West, for having illegally zeized a table of the value of 15l.- tile property of the plaintiff. Sergeant VA trots %--, for thie plaintiff, said he felt exceedingly anxious that neither the interests of hiis clients nior the interests of the learned body to which he belonged should sust-ain any inj'ury. The crlaiotiff, the jury must k-now, was the King's ancient Sergeant, who had retired fromn the bar, to thre regret of all who k-trayn hi; and the general sentiment of the profession towards bim was corn. prehendeci in the powerful words of SlhakeSpeaTe- _ take him for all in all, " We ne'er shiall look upon 1irs like again." The defendants were the overseers of the -parish of St. Dunstan in the XV'est, and tire question whether Senraeants'-inn, a place in which the sages of' the law resided, was not liable to the poor.rates, was conscienriousla' raised by tirein. For the first time the pro. visionis of tire 43di ol'`Elizabeth~, cap. 2, were enforced in tire case of Sergeants'.inn. and they resolvedI to try witether it was to be consi- deredl extra partochiial, or liable, as parochial, to the paymnent of the poor's-rates. Althoughi the question wais of himmansme importance to bothi parties, it rmust bre tdecidted hev the mnere fact of locality. There was a strong presumtption against ithe pa,ri%h in. thie circum'stance of thieir having permitted. their now avoweri claint to slumber for niearly, two hund(red years. Tire inn was as remarkable for its architectural beauty as for its antiquity. Frinal thie rc ign of Rieltarti II.,whichr re- cognized it as the residence cf thesaesof thelaw, its historylirad been brought down. It form-ed part and parce of the nossessions of the lilocess of Ely. To ascertain the antiqsrirv of thie division ofparislies must be matter of difficulty. The v'ear 630 was pointed ont by Cami- den as the tnoie of the division, whilst Hlobart laidl it down thiat pakris,hes were enactedl in 1179. Hlowever, us bishopricks, arch. bishioprickcs, andi dioceses were established before prarishes, the pre- Sumnption was, that this landi, whicirl was in thta:ee of Ely, Was pus- sessed of all the privileges aind exemptor Will I at all timnes be. longetI to tIre chuirch lantds. The see of' Ely- wvas possessed of tire very powerfiul distinction ijrrr -r'arlia, a'rtd prohably'lheld tire right of totail exemiption. Richard Ilt. gave an idea of tlr autuiority of the Bishiop of Ely thius- "Ely withi Morton troubles me more near, Than Buckingirain, withi his rash leviedl %trenrth." The learnedI Sergeant theni quoteri a lease grantcdl in 1430, to prove that Sergeantrs'-inn liadi been fro'm the first inhab ted by the sages of' the law the nataral andl only rleierlction fronti whiich was, that it had been invariabrly exemipted front parochiial burdlens. Thie case of the plaintiff uriust almaost exclusively dlepend uipoti dlocumientarv cvi- rlence. In 1646, a parliamentary ordinance was issued, fj5r the suppression of' certain bislsopricks, aiRs tire sale of certain lands: brrt it contatinedt a special exemption in favour of Sergearnts'-inn, merrtioned as ecclesiastical land, and of course nor liable to parochlial assessment. The report of the Comnriiisioners appointed in 1 640 to ascertaitn the nuimber -md -valute of all parsonages andI vicarages, dle- fined the bo-undaries of tire parishi of'St. Dunstanr. It sakid the pa. rish was dtividled into two pacts-the one in London, the other in Mliddleaex .tirat tIre parsonage of St. Dunstan's in the West was in London, anti tire Rolls liberty, tire other, was in Mliddlesex ; that there was buit one churcir in rthe parish, anti that the inhabitants of the Rolls liberty were greatly, in wint of a church of their own. It coziltl be provedi that Sergeant!;'-ir'n alwayas contained a ei'urch in wvhich tire frill service was performed. If, threreibre. it hadt been within tire parishi, this second chrirlir, the churcit of SerLeatrts'-inn,must uindloubtedily have been mrentioned in the report. Service had beeni periformied there within hris mnem-ory, and lie had even preached thiere in Iiis turn. Nortsltgrd been levied to main-ain it ;neither was it a chapel of ease ; neither had tire inn been calledI upon to nay anv otet'r rates than mark-ed it as de. pentlent upon, or incorporatedf with, the paristi of St. D)unstan in the West. The 4th of W1illiam anrd Mary , which first established tIre land-tax, was importatnt in this case. Under it Sergeants'-inn wvas treated as a pri,vileged pieace ; separate assessors were appointed foi the rates, which were iraid to dis,tinct collectors, anti ithe irrn war not scheduled as tire parishes of the city wvere. Toe parish had sho-n, in a latte document, their inability to confirmi their claim, for in an art of tire 3r1 of tire present King, to con- vert the vicarage of" the parish into a rectory and to provide for tire rector, all the lirouses in the parish liable to contribution were scheduled, anti yet in thie schtedule annexed to the act not one of the tenemneirts in Sergeants%'irn was includedi, except a coffee- house inhabited try Damsiel Ells, whirl, was not to ire considered as an authrority for extenrding tire rate. Tire parishi-officers, in peram- builating the hounds of tite parishi on Ascension-dat', never werrt inito Sergeants'-inn as part of their parisir, except otree; and. tiren they weretutrned out. The inu was accustomed to treartihaburdenof its own toor-. Al bastard cirild wrts rrpon one ocmaion dropped in the inn a't the donor of M.r. Justice Frsrtescue--an accident which imight hiappeni iatlhe bestregirlaled soicieties--but. it was well known tlat The learired Judge coulld not have been the fathmer, anti the parish-officers were applied to,thatr threynright rernove the cirild. At ava-tryimeeting, however, it was decided that the parishi otrght not to) be burdened with a clhild diropped in Sergeants'-inn, as thre learned bodr' reitiloig there dild rot contribtute to the parish rates. The lesirnedl body wasP therefore obliaed to maintain the churli. A lunatic lira- also beeni masintainred ai'their exipense ; andon the occasio:r ofa funeral whicir took- place in tire inn, the paurish-officers char-gad donuble fees. Itn conclusion, the learned sergeant expressed liN '&onfidencu tirat tire pcrrof on the side of the platintifFiwruld be irrelistible. 'Ihe learned Sergeant then produ,,ed dioeui-62?tary and irarole evi- dence itaproof or aiilie he d slatedl. Sergeant PFLL, for tire dfifnrldrrt, dleried tihat Sergearrts'itrn had been exem-pted front parishi rates, and considered it evidence of a weak cause to argute ritpon a two centuries' forbearance, when a .righrt pu~s Lively existed. Toe fact was, anotiler lewrned body, tire Society of Lincoln's-inn, badl been in a snimilar ,ituatiotn for '200 veers, and harnti tlduri'ng tirat titus been assessed; but in the year 182 1, by tire decision int the case of" Cr laytont v. Pope," they' Ncere compelled to pay th~e rates.. In 18-22, tile learned Society of Clir'rd's-in'r. which sRince izs origin liadl enjoyed a sinmilar exemPtion, was comnetledl to contributre to the payment of tire parochial expenses. -No .pre- scriptive exe-mption corrld be set op by any of these! societies, be. cause the statufte by wliich itb6y werei made Iliable w as ortlv two cart- tories old. Titer-a was no groumid for sur-pr-tee that tire rigitt to as-sess Should, in certain eases, lie utnexereleed ; but in times, like threse tire arish ofhicers were borrnd to make everv species of prrrperty' availaible for the relief of the poor, and they brought the case into the curt,i tlre firm 1lelief lthat it woulid be tried fairly. Ttiey mianifested their confidence, as everyv sergeant whro pracni . te d in the question. 11~ (Sergeant Pall) wa ts o avouring to-- pose a buirden uponi htmself, anct even h'i risdhip wiro trit7il the cause WOUld4 if the ventlict was again-st tIie jsijltif-r be obliged to pay as an inh4Ditant of tire Inn, t'ire sum he miglht be as-sessed at. If they were nut extra-paroichial,'as lire cpntenletd, they unkgirt to pay. 'There was sno positive documentary evidence to pr-or-a that Sergeantt'inn Iirrd ever belonged to any oftire monastic insetitutions. WVhen England was tinider the Catholic control, the church hadl oh- talneti peculiar privilege, andI exemptionss, which had been retained in many instancesi lip to tire present time. The chu-cit was then grasp. iog with iron hiaids all privileges and icttmttnities that miglirt rende-r it independent. The priesits said, 4'The ground uLri hrouses stand upon is sacred, and cannot he made liable to paymnent." The chrurchr was an exclusive bodv, but the law was an opsen bodyv, and possessed no exclusive privil& 'es, of tire existencee of which thecir pos- Session would be evidence. The learned sergeant, after some frir- titer observations, producced a nuniber of' records to show that pay- nrents had bear,n ade by Judges re-sident in the inn for the surpport of the poor of' tIre parishrthat in many ancient assessments for ye- rious purposes tile sergeants hadl been included, and bath paid the rates, as belonging to the prarishi. TIre evidlence tvas excectlingly voluminous, anid occupied the Court for several hours. - The jury cretmred a verdict for the defendants. COURT OF KING'S B3NCH, WEva.n'Sg, F. I& tAlC}t V-. SIR' G. p. TURN:ER.,