EXTRAORDINARY ACTION.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 295, 22 May 1875, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY ACTION.

One of the most extraordinary actions ever placed on the records of a legal tribunal was tried recently in the Court of Exchequer, Dublin. The plaintiff, Henry Joseph Bowyer, had been for thirty-five years stationery clerk in the Common Pleas office, and the defendant, Mr John J. Burke, is a parchment manufacturer. Last year the plaintiff was convicted of having carried on an extensive system of fraud on the Government, by ordering more parchments than were required for the office and selling the surplus, for which he underwent six months' imprisonment. The action was to recover damages for alleged breach of contract. The summons and plaint averred that Mr Burke entered into a contract with plaintiff to pay him a commission at the rate of 2d per skin on his obtaining orders for parchments and skins, which plaintiff then had power to order by virtue of his position. It further set out that in a period extending from 1868 to 1873 he had ordered from the defendant 200,000 parchments and 40,000 skins; that in respect of the agreement sued on defendant had paid plaintiff commission on 40,000 skins and 100,000 parchments, but that, on plaintiff's conviction, defendant refused to further recognise the contract, and refused to pay the commission on the remainder. For this plaintiff claimed £833 damages. The plaintiff also alleged that, by reason of defendant's failure to supply sufficient parchments and skins, he (plaintiff) had lost his position and was imprisoned, and for this he claimed £IOOO damages. The plaintiff deposed that in 1863 or 186'4 the defendant, Avho was Government contractor for the supply of stationery, parchment, and skins, solicited him to put forward as many requisitions for parchment as he could for his benefit, and that he did so. Several times he received written memoranda from the defendant as to the size of the parchments that would suit him best to send. The arrangement was that witness was to send on the parchments to Mr Burke after having received them from the Stationery Office, and that he was to allow him 2d or 3d per skin. After the plaintiff had been examined, Serjeant Armstrong, for the defendant, called on the Chief Baron not to investigate the case further, as the plaintiff's evidence proved the existence of a corrupt contract to defraud the Queen. —The Chief Baron directed a nonsuit.