SUPREME COURT.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 637, 10 September 1851, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

Civil Sittings. Before Mr. Justice Chapman. September Bth, 1851. BETHUNE & HUNTER V, BIASS. Thia was an action to recover the sum of £34 : 16 : 1 on a bill of exchange, with interest from May 18, 1850. Mr, Ross, for the defendant, admitted the acceptance, but pleaded the delivery to, and acceptance by the plaintiffs, of 33 sheep in full discharge of the debt. In support of this

view he called Mr. Rowland Davis, who proved that in the month of May, 1850, the defendant being in difficulties and awaiting ‘ria, at the Supreme Court, he (witness) on behalf of defendant arranged with Mr. Bethune for the delivery of 40 sheep by defendant to plaintiffs in full discharge of the debt; that subsequently the defendant being unable to -ehver the full number agreed upon, plaintins after some further negotiation agreed to accept a smaller number, and finally 33 sheep were delivered, and witness believed they were intended by both parties as a full discharge of the debt. 6

Mr. Hart, for the plaintiffs, contended that the arrangement alluded to by the witness took place in May, whilst the defendant was awaiting his trial at the Supreme Court, but that it was not carried out; that the action was commenced in August, and that the 33 sheep were delivered in November, and therefore could not be intended as the fulfil-’ ment of an arrangement made six months previously, when from the circumstances in which the defendant was placed the plaintiffs would have been willing to settle the matter at a disadvantage. Witnesses were called on the part of theplaintiffs to prove the time of of the present proceedings, and date of the' delivery of the sheep. His Honor, in summing up, said that the only question was, were the sheep delivered in full satisfaction of the debt or only in part payment and he left it to the consideration of the Jury whether the delivery had taken place within such reasonable time after the agreement as to lead to the inference that the delivery was in pursuance of that agreement. The Jury returned a verdict for the Plaintiff for the amount claimed with interest at 10 per cent, subject to deduction for the value of the Sheep to be computed by the Registrar of the Court.