A TRYING SITUATION FOR LAWYERS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3782, 29 August 1883, Page 4

A TRYING SITUATION FOR LAWYERS.

In tho Queen's Bench division, before Judges AVilliams aud Mathew, a motion was made for a new trial of the case of " Bullock v. The South-eastern Railway Company." Tho plaintiff, a daughter of the proprietor of Bullock's Royal Marionettes, sought to recover damages from the defendants for personal injuries sustained bj' her while travelling by ono of their trains. She was travelling to Dover with her mother and some of her sisters on the business of the -Marionettes. The train pulled up at a place where there was no platform, and the plaintiff, on getting down there, as she was required by the Company's servants to do, received the injuries complained of. Tho trial of the case before the Lord Chief Justice resulted in a verdict for ber, with damages to the amount of a thousand guineas. The arguments turned chiefly on the question as to the nature of tho injuries the plaintiff had suffered, and whether they ivere permanent or merely temporary, thcevidencc on tho subject being conflicting. Counsel for the Company contended, iv support of the rule, that the plaintiff had no real claim for damages except the suffering she had gone through during- a short period of illness since the accident happened, and the expenses she had been put to. Mr Biron, Q. 0., who before Lis appointment as a police Magistrate was ono of the defendant's counsel, said, in the earlier stage of the arguments, that it Avas one of those cases in ivhich a railway company Avas to be called upon to pay excessive damages merely because a too sympathetic jury had allowed their feelings to get the better of them, when the counsel ou the other side held up to them the spectacle of a good-looking young- ivoman who had sustained some hurt. Mr Justice AVilliams: She avus good looking, ivas she ? —Mr Biron: Yes, my lord ; and tho Ai-orst of it was that she had several good-looking-sisters, whom the other side brought forward to give evidence on her behalf. But the worst of all was that tho best-looking of the lot was reserved for the last.—Mr Justice AVilliams and Mr Justice jMathew jocularly expressed their sympathy with tho learned counsel in so trying a situation. It avus very shocking and very hard on raihvay contpiuiies. — The Attorney-General also dwelt on this feature of the case, and said that after the last and best-looking of the sisters had been placed in the Avitness-box, and brought matters to a climax, tho jury Avould not look or listen to anything else. Nothing he could say had the slightest impression on them. The Lord Chief Justice did bis best to bring them to reason, but it was all in vain.—Tho Court decided that

the rule must be made absolute for a newtrial unless the parties could agree about a reduction of tho damages from 1000 guineas to £500. _________,__».