NOT JUSTICE, IF LAW

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1678, 3 October 1887, Page 2

NOT JUSTICE, IF LAW

. (London paper) The case of '• Winter v Hay " came before the Recorder and a jary la the Lord Mayor's court recently. Both parties appeared m parson. The plaintiff said that he was suing the defendant, John Bay, to recover the sum of £270, money which had been advanced to the defend* ant for the purpose of paying the costs of a cnminal proaceution m the Old Bailey. Ihe defendant had be.n tried and convicted, and sentenced to seven yeara* Betvitude ln Maroh, 1885, and afterwarda he waa released, when he gave LO.U.'a for tbe money. — The defendant : I admit tha. I hid tbe money, but it la und.r peculiar circumstances. I was tried before your lordship at the Old Bailey on a charge of tt.aliog some silk. It was a trumped up charge, brought by a large company ln the usual cowardly way m whi >.h .argo companies take advantage of the miserable state or the law. I was dragged out of a public-house, aad robbed of £1,000, whloh I hod gone 8,000 miles |to gat. I was sentenced to seven yeara I penal servitude. I then petitioned the Home Secretary (Sir William Haroonr.) to review my case It waa reviewed, and after nine months on the treadmill I was reloaded with the fall pardon of the Queen. I was then aued •y everybody, and I am m debt about £900. I hid better have stopped m | prison, and then the Statute of Limita> ...tion3 would have applied, and nothing could have been obtained against me. I then brought an aotion against the Great Easter a railway for £10.000, for m aliolous prosecution. That case was argued before -the late Assistant. judge (Mr Brandon), and he decided that I waa dead m tha eyeß of the law. He said that I oould not sueJn-o-woa-jußQce of having been convicted. But, now lam dead, how can they sue the corpse — (laughter)?— Tho learned Rsoorder said he would not decide the esse now He must consider this defence wbioh had been raised. It certainly was a most extraordinary case. vlr Kemp. QO., who happened to be In court, aatd he argued the case for the present defendant m the action whioh he brought against the railway oompany, and it was one of the hardest oases he ever knew, The defendant had been absolutely pardoned, and yet the law said he was not a whole man. He oould not sue for damages.— -The defendant: That is what I say now, and I am going to find it. lam utterly rained by it. If I paid all my debts at 10a per week it would take me 39 yearß to do it. I had better have stopped m prison than have been pardoned. — The learned Reoorder then ordered the case to stand over, saying that he would see what oould be done m tha matter. _t__£!s