SOME INTERESTING LEGAL DECISIONS.
The following arc taken from an article in a recent TCngiih magazine :— What ia a date ? Ceitnin won Id-be voters for Marylebone Bent in their claims, jrjperly filled up ami signed, but dated inei el_y " August ISS3 " After a week's cogitation, the revising barridtcr came to the conclusion that that was a sufficient date, as it showed that the claims were made between the Ist and the 23th of August, as requited by the act ; the fact of their being in the hands of the overseers proving delivery on or before the 25th day of the month. What is a vacant and what an unoccupied house, were two questions submitted to a Court in the United States, under rather peculiar circumstances. • A gentleman owning a house in which he and his family lived from May to November, left it for the rest of the year to be looked after by a farmer living near, visiting it occasionally himselt to see that all was right. This house he insured under two sepaiate policies. It was burned down ; and w hen called upon to pay, the insurers repudiated all liability. By the terms of one policy they undertook to make good the value of the house, if buined, " unless it should become vacant or unoccupied ;" by the terms of the other, their liability ceased if the house " became vacant and unoccupied." The comt deteimined that no claim could ause on the first policy, since, to be occupied, a house nniat have human beings in it, using it as their customary abode, but the company was liable under the second policy, as, although the house was unoccupied, it was not vacant, so long as the furniture and cooking utensils were in it. A very nice question was raised by an English Accident Insurance Company, anxious to escape paying a thousand pounds to the representatives of a policyholder who was drowned in a liver near Edgbaston. It was contended that the unfortunate man fell into the shallow stream, and was suffocated through being unable to laise his head above the water fiom exhauslijn caused by a fit ; and that the Company was not liable for any injury consequent upon natural disease or exhaustion, while one of the conditions of the policy specified that no claim should arise *' for any injuiy fiom any accident, unless such accident shall be caused by some ontwaid and\isible means." The Court held tliat the insured died from drowning in a brook while in an epileptic fit, and di owning had been decided to be aninjtuy caused by an accident fiom outwaid and visible means. The deatli did not come within the woids " natural disease or exhaustion," but lesulted from an accident, which was drowning, and the Compniy mu^t pay. Thief catchinr; is best left to the police, aniateuis may so easily oven each themselves, ifeaiing a noiso outside their house, after they had gone to lest, a woithy couple aiose, and asecitaining that a man was piowling mound, came to the conclusion that he was bent on robbery ; so they unbolted the outer door, and waited. Sine enough, the man entered, w.it, piomptly seized, handed o\er to the police, and committed for trial at the Manchester assi/es ; but the grand juiy, under the judge's instruc tions, tlnew out the bill— the accused could not be chai god with breaking into a house which ho had cntcicd by merely raising the latch. As lucky a let oif awaited tlie Ameiican actoi Fiaync, -when anaigncdfor the manslaughter of Miss Bcln cii, by shooting her upon the stage, in performing a modern \cision of Toll's feat. The defence way, that Fray no did not point his nfle at the actress, but an apple a few inches above her head ; and the Court holding that the gun being pointed at an object, and not at the person, thcie could be no chaige of manslaughter, the pusoner must be discharged. Some lecent decisions of the Couita of the United States aie notable for thcii common sense. In a, lawsuit against a Kailway Company, in which the 1 datives of a young nun ,\ ho had been urn down by a tiain, sought to recover 10,000dols by way of compensation for their loss, •7 ltd gc Love ga\c judgment in favour of the company, saying, the young man had no business walking on other people's piopeity, while the company did have business 1 mining its tiams there ; a lailway is not a public highway, but pm ate piopetty, and people must not tiespass. In another comt it was decided that a Telegiaph Company could not limit its liability by punting on itsfoimsa notice disclaiming responsibility foi mistakes unless the message was lepeatcd — of course, at the customei's cost. Any nile or legulation seeking to lelieve the company from petforming Us duty with integuty, skill, and diligence, was in contravention of public policy ; and if it were necessaiy, in order to secuie con cobles'), to icpeat a message, the duty of lepeating it de\ol\td upon the company. Per contra, a company's citstomeis must use their lights with dmietion. A subscriber to the telepl one in Cincinnati was deprived of his piivilcge by the company because of his using a woid — which is too fierjuently in the mouths of Englishmen -in lib communications, lie sued to be lomstated. One judge said the obnoxious word was not piotanc accoiding eithei to the decalogue, the dictionary, common law, or statute law ; but the majonty of the Court were of a difheient way of thinking, and declared the word to be coaise, unbecoming, and piofane, or if not piofane, improper. The nile piolnbiting impiopor language was a reasonable one. The telephone 1 cached into all classes of society, and into many family ciiclcs. It is possible for a communication intended for one individual to reach another. Moieo\er, the opeiatois arc in many cases refined ladies, and e\en beyond this, all opeiato'rs ate to be piotccted from insult 'Jhe inventois, too, ha\e a light to be piotccted, and to ha\e the instrument placed in a lcspcctable light before the woild, otheiw isc it might go out of use, For all which leasons they concuned in lion-suiting the piofane plaintiff.
Two Fienclimcii, the brothois Font' 1 have invented a new kind of li.un made eutiicly of wood. Instead of ktiiuns, the invciitois use .stiong strips of .Aiiieiie.ui fir. Tlie .sound is juoduced, as in the ordinal y liaip, \>y tiic contact of the fingers, but the player weais leather gloves co\eied with lebin.
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Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1918, 21 October 1884, Page 4
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1,331SOME INTERESTING LEGAL DECISIONS. Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1918, 21 October 1884, Page 4
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