THE LATE IMPOUNDING CASE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 237, 8 January 1881, Page 2

THE LATE IMPOUNDING CASE.

To the Editor. Sir, —In justice to the Racing Club and mysejf, kindly permit me to correct the report of the case heard at the R.M. Court on the 4th inst., which said the verdict was for the defendant, 1 having to pay all expenses. The true verdict was for me, with costs, and—putting his solicitor’s fee at the modest sum of half a guinea—has cost the defendant, Mr. Wilkie, seventeen shillings. My case was brought at the request of all who had their horses impounded, having expressed their determination to take proceedings also afterwards. Several of the Racing Club expressed their regret at his illegal and unjustifiable conduct, but it is easily accountable for-—Mr. Wilkie, having bought the gates at too high a price, was determined, legally or illegally, to make a haul, but to his surprise and expense, he finds caught in his net neither flat heads no mullet, but real live Philistines. —I am, &c., Spencer Stephens. Tinwald, Jan. 6th, 1881.

[Mr. Stephens is perfectly correct when he states that the verdict was for plaintiff, as a matter of fact. The error was ours. Our reporter understood that no costs were given, or rather, that each party had to pay his own costs. With the motives which prompted Mr. Wilkie to seize the horses we have nothing to do. The Racing Club leased the reserve, and while it is in their occupation no one has any right to trespass on it; neither, of course, has the Secretary any right to take horses ho has seized upon it through the racecourse gates and chai’ge gate-money. —Ed. A. G ] ‘