THE ACTION AGAINST "GENERAL" BOOTH.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4566, 23 August 1883, Page 2

THE ACTION AGAINST "GENERAL" BOOTH.

Mr Justice Stephens delivered judgment in the above ease, in which Messrs Ebbetts seek to recover from " General" Booth, of the Salvation Army, possession of premises, including the Grecian Theatre and Eagle Tavern at City road, on the ground of forfeiture by reason of alleged breeches of the.covenants of the lease. His lordship was clearly of opinion that both covenants had been broken, and he had considered whether it was a case for relief under the Conveyancing Act, 1881. It would be a pity that Mr Booth should lose the £20,000 he laid out on the place, and he had accordingly considered the matter most anxiously, but he could not see that this was a case for such relief. The defendant had been wrong from first to last. He took the lease, intending from the first to evade one of its terms. He solemnly engaged to keep the Eagle Tavern as a public-house, and he must have known what the substantial and fair meaning of these words was. He had tried to avoid his obligation by an unsuccessful legal quibble. It was not honest. If a man's conscience did not allow him to fulfil his covenant substantially in the spirit as well as in the letter he should not enter into it. He was sorry that the defendant or any one else who had spent £20,000 for a lawful object should lose it, and if he saw any way to relieve him by any terms which would put the plaintiffs iv precisely the same (

position as they were in before, be^ should be disposed to do so notwithstanding his opinion of the defendant's conduct;. but no such way had been suggested, and he could not think of any. His lordship therefore, gare judgment for the plaintiffs for possession^ but meanwhile stayed execution for a week to allow the other side an opportunity for appealing, which it was intimated that the defendant intended to do.