Court Of Common Pleas, Mo...
The Times, 1824-07-13T00:00:00

lfejore the CHIEF JUSTICE aind a Vomrnto;l Jusrn,. l m was an action tor assault and false imprisonment. The de- fendants pleaded that they were not guilty, and upon that point issued wasjoined. Mir. Sergeaut VA176HAN opened the case for the plaintiff. He stated thlat the plaintiff in this case was a resrectable gentleman practising as a surgeon at Eton and that the defendants, wvhe vere three in nuimber, were Ir. IffM3osq, a gentleman of the sameplace, who practised, but was not regularly admitted as a surgeon, a Mr. Milton, the owner of a house in that tonI, opposite the spot where tbe assault onmplained of was coimmitted; and a Ailr. W. Hlarwick, who eitlter was, or called liimnelf a constable of Eton. T he cir- cumstances out of whicil this action had asisen were as follows:- On the 29th of Dlay last, aii aceident occurrecl in the Highi street of Eton, in conssequenceof the faliling of a scaffolt, whichhad been erected torepair the house of Mr. Milton, one oftiPe defendalts on the present record: By this accident twO of the verkmen eniloyed were olny slig)htly ihjured; bat one of theein waS so seriously in. juredl,tlitt he was taken up senseless, and was at first thousght to be lead. Alr. Alilton, oni hearing of the transaction, ordered Afr. Stratt'or.l, whom lie sisaallv employed as his medical attend- ant, to be senti Ior. On the messenger's arriving at Alr. Strat. ford's house, it was foutnd that he was not at home,' but was visiting a Dr. Perguson at Windsor. His assistant, how- ever, having ordered the poor man to be undresedi and Iut to bed at the T'Iurk', Ife.1d Inn, went to fetchi his in,ater, .ho, on hearing of the accidenit, inmediately went to him. On his ar- rival at the Turk's licad, he found Dr. illoss, as he called himself, y the side of his patient. In this state of things, licapked Dr. ,MoSs whether any thitig had been dotie to the patienit. Dr. Aloss replied," ! What's thatt to you ? He is il my care, and vou have nothingto dto with hki." 'I'heplaintiff then said, " ThaLis notat, answer to my qiestition. I. shall, however, do mv duty, anid sitall bleed hlini withlout lelay." In consequence ef that observationi some- body handed ovcr the plaintiffia piece of' list or tape to bind tip tbe patient's arm. He was proceeditig to make use of it, whets Dr. Mloss went up to hin, snatched the list out of his hanids, tore it, and said, ou ngust istemad, Sir, to think of sucil a thing." In rply to this observatiou, the plaintiff sail, "1 I have becn regularly bred as a surgeon, Sir, ansd vot have not." Dr. Mlses immediatelv said, " I don t care or that; Sir; ytlu ate a d-I blackguard. Is not there a constable in the room e"1 Hereupon M\ir. illilton, who was in the room, and wilo hadl been the first person to sendfor theplainffir,choed ttecry,an' likeiviseccaille fbraconstable. A Air.Wlison,wio wasthe headIborough ofEton,\appened to he lire8ent; buthe said thathesawino -casion tointerfere,as ito breach of tihe peace had been comTnitted. On jAir. Wilson's making this observation, Dr. Mloss and Mr. i\lilton became quite outrageous,and threatened to make a cop3plaint against himn ant get hian fined by the next benci of magistrates, for relus- ing to disch-arge his duty. Mlr. Wilsoti, notwvithstanding this ob- servation, refused to interfere, unless a regular constable was sent for, who rihonild call upon llim for assistance. A constable was accordin;gly s cit for, and the thlird tiefenlatit, wltose ntame was Harwick, cumne on tbeir call. On his arrival, lie seized the plaintiff, and, bh thedesire of Aloss and Alilton, proceeded to drag himn with great violence and indecency out of the roam. As lie macle somt,e re- sistance. they tvent to tissist H:-arwick, and after kicking him out of the apariment, Iett hbit, at the gateway of the inn, in the custodv of the conmstable, to be the gaze and attglting.stock of the people of Bton. Suchl was thteoutlineof the case. lt' violence, such as he had described, were not repressed by the arm of the law, they would give rise to perpetual intra.tions of the peace, which woutil thirow the wvhole fianie of society into confusion. His client (lid not wish tlor extravagant damages: and as lie woultd be contented with, such temperate damnages as wouhl prevent the re- Petition of such irsttilts in future, anti would rescue his claracter from Ehe imputations which this transaction had! cast upotn it, tle learned Coutnsel said that he had no doubt tlittL he shouldl receive such damages at the hards of jury. 'I'he ass,tant of Nr. Stratefoer and ilfr. IVilsot, were then put into the box. They proved in the leading points the statement madci by thelearnedl Counsel ; but negativedt the excessive violet s' vhichhe niectarea to a.hvwlseee-wusen. rThere wvas, now~ever, tituas ltbren, in their tetmostyh.oy Mr. Wilson swore that ilr. Afitoit orderei the plaintiff to be sent for, because lie was the handiest surgeon: andt tile assistaut swore that he ladl sent for his master, as soon as ever lie had seen the accident, and that hiis iaster had come in consequence. On their cross examination they deposed, that Air. Stratford was thle surgeon of the parish of Etot,, last rear, and that Dr. Aloss was the surgeon for the present year; and that both M r. Al ilton anti Dr. Moss wished Allr. Stratford to leave the rooin whiere the patient was, shortly atter he had eeitered it. AIr. Sergeant SPAx.,KiE said, that before he addressed the jury, he must put a point to his Lordship regarding the defentiant liar- wick. It apleared that he ha(l been sent for as a constable, antI all that ie liad d'one wss totake time plaititiff into custody in coinsequence of the orders givtil him. Hle therefore contenledl that there was no ease as against llarwick. 'rae I Oi C I TI E JUSTICE was of a cotitrary opinion . A con- stable was bournd to consider whcthier the circunistatices tinder which he was lesised to act justifieid his interference. AMr. Sergeant Sr. aTxte then addressed the iury for ItIe defend- ants. 'l'te itecy umusL have long since seen the inature of the pre- sent actioti, anid thlt it hati arisens ouL of a very foolish, anl ii t very laud.ble, squabble between two rival practitioners in sdrgery. It appeared that the plainitifl' had been the parisa-dloetor for sonme time but liad recently beeti lisplaced frem tIltL situation by the deientant Moss The coseq(lueiice wvas, tliat he who had been uiilister hadl been forced into opposiotioi, ant had taket, the very eatlhiest oppor. tunilty of shiowing his ,pleen towatds the party ilo lhad taken the office which he liad been obliged to resign. lle did not blame either doctors or politicianis for etndeavouring to get inio place- but tliet! there wcre certait, decencies, whici both of them 6uglIt to ob- serve, it they wished to rettin the rcspect of the public. hi tde present case, the leariied ldoctor who la(i brought the action had not aeted with, that delicacy which hc thtoLIght oLight to have been observed by a metitber of the Royal College ot Surgeons. He ha l rather aeteil wtth the avidity and sharpness or a ship-ma.ster in the wlhalefishery, where it was well known diet whet a aii was oice harpooned, evets if it were lost for a titne by the persotn i;arpooiiilng Zt, it wris stll cotiidered the property of the shipnmaster whose sailor had first struck it. It appeared that the assistant havingscenet the accident which took p,lace at 51ir. iMiltoni's house, immediately ratn out te harpon a patient for his master; anrd bis master havitig heard that he a?d done so, was xiO well pleased Iivili the intelligence that he imtmediately lIl't his wine, which ice was pking with Dr. "esgusson, amid rait to lilS patient, thinkhig that he liad tot only got an inchoate, but also an indefeasible ithl lto his body for all the purposes of bleeditig, purging, blistering, &c. Inideed, lie liad now brougIt this actiot, not so muchi for tryittg the ass tult as for trvin- his property int the patient int qtestioil, which had been disputedi by de efendant Alosstmind lie (.51r. tergeantSpamtkie) should not be muc, surprised if the plaintiff broughit antother 'ictioli to re- cover thie amount of the fees witicil Dr. Mliss had received for curing the fractures kf it' i ut'uforttnate isa,-l He con- tendled, front the evidence, thlat if' cit assatilt liad been coinntitted by the defendant Mloss, trie first provocatiot, liad been given by the plaintiff, who had imnputed to himr, in the presence of several persoils, that lie uses not a regular bred surgeoi, or in other words, that he was nothina butt. a quack 'FThe plainltifr too, it ought tow be recollected, was an intruler in the Turk's Head Iiin; for t was in evidence thtat he lied been sent for, because lie was the handiest stirgeon, (thereby mricatng the nearest, and not the clever- h s eu :steao, arat not because he was tilc surgeon emnploYci by Al r. I tl and his %'mlvl. As soon as he enttred the room, they would recoilect that, though ano- ther suirgeon wat inspecting the poor man's body, he went tiercely up to it, as if' he was determlne(. a t all events to make a patient (Jr something else of it (Air. Sergeant Vaughaa said, " Whv, you s,irely (lon't mean a corpse ! (A laugh.) Ilis first words were that he would perfonai his duty ; anti wiat dlid the jury seem to think his i(leas of performing hisduty ware ? Why, hbealled it liis dutv, lie claimed it as his right, to bleed and purge the King's subjects ad infinilum. [latl he such a right? TheL,oRtD CIttsEt JusrTca.-" If he has, it is a power ex- tremely dangerous to the constitution." (A laugh.) M..r. Ser eant SPANgIE thanked hisLordshlip for tie observation, the rignit clfairned was certainly dangerous to the ctnstitution, and the defendaiits had not done more thian their daty in disputing the exercise of it, He maintained, however, that the conduct ofthe pIahibi'in endeavouring to exercise it, was most scandaLous. If he bad had the slightest spark of fine feeling, le would have walked out of the room, when lie found that no person in it wanted his com- pany. Instead ot' doiig so, the ex-doctor entered into a sculie with tihe in-doctor, and seemed ratlier desirous to fight over the body of the patient, who, at that moment, iniFht be dying, than allow him to be cured by a practitioner, who might not be like himself, a surgeon, or barber.stirgeon, or whatever name lhe chose to call him. selt. But the reaL question for-the inry to consider was, had the slaintiff been assaulted ? He tlhotsgit not. It *asi true that, he had been turnedl out of tsbe roomri, but it was because he had acted as a violent disturber oY the peace, not as a quiet member of the facultv. He had acted with the utmlost incivility to his brother practitioner; lie had shown towards hiim the meanest jealousy; and he had vent- ed his ill humour upon the parties then present, when it would hare been mitch better for him to have gone home and purged it ofr bv somc.wholesome cathartic. Hfis learned friend had told themi, thit -the plaintififhad been dragged out of the room, kicked by the ae- fendants, and rendered tie gaze and laughing-stock af tbe people at ton. 1ut la(l she slightest evidence been given to warrant such broad rasertionl ? Not-the slightest: all that had been proved was, that the plaintiffl ha( bedi taken out of thc room, .ind liad been detained for fvenminutes under thegateway, and in hit opinion those who lad so turned hisi otit, liad done it for no other purpose than to get rid ofD a nuisance. He wts aware tiat a verdict must pass against his clients, because the 'had nut put a solemn justification on the record. Ile was glid t ey hid not done so, because the circum- stances on which this: action was founded did not constitute a fray, but were only' such as must.tlways take place, when the exigency ot ie momentunde it nceccsary to get ;id of. a troublesome person in order tt save anotbev'hi?e. 'The damageal, lwhich he, thought best ca?culated to mcetlheiw>iit of the case,' tould be expressed bv a coin which .vssnt:ln use irt hetnsury he hatlrecen?1y left, wbic I amtounttti to the hundredth pan of a farthiug_hemeant a eaerEc ; btt he wo,}ld nol c mplhia if tlr'gve Ihe sm=allest denominiatior of coin current in this ingdaom, namely, one afrthing; and he was quite sure that they would never consent to givo inore. The LoRn CurxEP JUSTICE told the jury, that aq there was no justifcatien of the assault, a verdict nust'pass for the plaintif. As they were tie best judges as to the amonnt of the damages, he should leave the case to therii without any further observatIons. A Jaror wished to know whethler, if a person intruded Into a room wh ere he had no bsusiness, the proprietor of it was not entitled to The lonD CrIIEr JUSTICE.-If that had been the case here, the dlefendants oughlt to have justified. Theyliad not done so, and tberetore the queeti*n which they had put to him was quite distinct from :hat they hasd to try. The jury then returred a verdict for the plaintiff.Dariages, one Trhe CUrES' Jsrs'rrcE....'le surgeoil should not have broughit his action.- I shall certi'y that the damages are under 40s WEILSON V. UUSKXiSSON. This was an action brought agatist the defendant, a chymist antd druggist, residing near Swinton-street, Grays-inn lane, to recover dainages for an allegetl naisance caused by the manutfacture of cer- tain chymical compounds carried on there- by the defendant. The plaintiff complained, that in consequence of the proceedings of the defendant he was subjected to three distinct inconveniences * first his right of way vras obstructed; secondly, the health of himself and family was endangered by the manner in which the smoke issued from the defendant's premises; and thirdly, that the hav and straw ill Itis stables was injured by a heap of rmbbish which the defendant ha( piled up before his st;ble-door. After a great dcat of uninter- estin$ evidencq had been lheard on both sides, the jury found a ver. dict, in which they negatived the two first complaints niade by the plaintiff. On the third point they found a verdict in his behalf, and gave him one shilling damages. Mbir. Sergearnt VAUOIAS zasked his leirdship to certify. 'the CrnEF JUSTICE said that Ile would consider of the point, and give ani answer to-morrow. COURT OF CommrN.1 PT,.P.AR '11--- T,,,v 10 STBRATnOTD V. MIOSS AND OTlIERS.