LAW AND POLICE.

West Coast Times, Issue 591, 16 August 1867, Page 3

LAW AND POLICE.

In the superior Courts there has been really nothing doing since the issue of our last summary, and in the Resident Magistrate's Court the only case of importance is that of Cowlishaw and Plaisted v. Bell, which was an action brought by the consignees of certain goods against the master of the schooner Leonidas for short delivery. The particulars of the case are as follows :— Plaintiffs claimed the value of two cases of galvanised iron short delivered out of six cases alleged to have been shipped in the Leonidas for the port of Hokitika by Messrs Hughes, of Melbourne, and for the receipt of which a bill of lading was signed. The bill of lading for six cases was made out by Messrs Hughes, and sent to Messrs Reid, Poole ' and Co., agents for the Leonidas. Four of these ca*es were sent to the Leonidas and received by Captain Bell : the other two were taken to the barque Frederic, received by the mate of that vessel, who gave the carter a receipt for the same, although it showed on" the face of it that the goods were intended for the Leonidas. 'Hie carter took the receipt to Messrs Reid and Poolo, who apparently, in the hurry of the moment merely glanced at the name Leonidas, aud, without comment, passed the receipt as having been given by Captain Bell, and attached their initials to the bill of lading. In the course of the day the captain was sent for to sign certain bills of lading, and being huiried by Messrs Poole and Co., who were the owners as well as agents of the Leonidas, he signed as directed, without reading the bills or comparing them with the carter's receipts. The mistake thus passed undetected until the arrival of the two vessels at this port, when it was soon discovered that one was short of two cases, whilst the other had two on board for which no bill of lading had been made out, although they were down on the freight list. Messrs Cowlishaw and Plaisted, the consignees, refused to take delivery of the two cases, which, coming the Frederic, they maintained were none of theirs, and instituted legal proceedings against the master of the Leonidas to recover the value of the goods not delivered, and ns no fraud could be proved by the defendants, whilst the plaintiffs were able to show that bflfore the Leonidas arrived they had not received notice that all the cases signed for had not been shipped in that vessel, a verdict was given in their favor for the full amount claimed (L4O 12s lOd). The two cases overshipped in the Frederic were afterwards claimed by, aud delivered to, Messrs Chesney aiul Co., the agents for the Leonidas, and sold by public auctionon ship's accouut, realising something under L3O.

The amount of criminal business before the Court has been, we are happy to say, comparatively nothing. A few cases of larceny of articles of no great value, constituting the chief business disposed of iv this department of judicial business.