Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1893-02-25 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

ACTION AGAINST TRADES UNION SOCIETIES.  In the Queen's Bench Division, onMonday, before the Lord Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Hawkins, a master mason and builder of Hull, named Temperton, anal J. Russell, president, and Stephenson, secretary, of the Hull branch of the Operative Bricklayers; Belt, president, and W. Byrne, secretary of the Hull branch of the Builders' Labo rers' Society; C. Clark, President, and John Trueman, secretary, of the Hull branch of the Operative Plasterers' Society, and E. Aunts, president, C. Clark, vice-president, and J. Devine, secretary of the joint committee of the Hull branches of the Operative Builders' Labourers' and Operative Builders' Societies, as well on their own behalf and as representatives of the societies and joint committees to which they respectively belonged. The plaintiff sought to recover damages on the ground that the defendants and the members of the societies in question had wrongfully induced certain persons to break certain contracts which they had entered into with him in consequence of some dispute between himself and the trade unions. He also complained that they had induced other persons not to use his goods, and induced his workmen to leave his employment. Besides damages, plaintiff also sought to obtain an injunction. The matter now came before the court upon an appeal from Mr. Justice Kennedy, who refused to alter the writ and state. ment of claim by striking out the words which intimated that defendants were sued as representing all the members of each of the said societies and the joint committee. In the course of the argument and in giving judgment, the Lord Chief Justice remarked that to sue in this form appeared to be an attempt to get round the Plymouth case, which was decided in favour of trades-unionists. Parliament had stated that these men had a right of combination, and the form of this action seemed to be for conspiracy. The only authprities cited in support of the proposal to sue the defendants as representatives of their societies were in the Chancery Division, but they applied to a different class of case, and there was very little direct authority. He protested, moreover, against the idea that the goods of a man who had not been served with a writ might be seized before judg. merit, of which he knew nothing, had been ob. tamed against another man as his representative. —The appeal would be allowed, with costs, and the words objected to in the writ and statement oft claim struck out.  A serious outbreak ot smai t-pox Has occurred at Middleton, near Manchester. No fewer than 14 cases have been reported, and these have been removed to the fever hospital at Marland, Rochdale. Two of the patients died on Friday from the malady. Fresh outbreaks are being reported almost daily. On Satunday night a domestic servant drowned herself and her two illegitimate children in a dam at Earl's Heaton, near Dewsbury. She had been in a great state of privation for several days, and had threatened to destroy herself in the early part of the week. The children were 11 weeks old.  Mr. W. J. Pierce, a member of the firm of Messrs. Pierce and Thorpe, auctioneers, of Northampton, committed suicide by shooting himself at his residence at Kingsthorpe on Sunday. The deceased, who was about 30 years of age, was a son of the late Mr. William Pierce. who was twice mayor of the borough,