COURT OF APPEAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1262, 7 May 1896, Page 30

COURT OF APPEAL.

Argument was heard at tho sitting of the Court of Appeal last week on an appeal from a decision of .Mr Justice Conolly in t\\n matter of the estate of the late Mr James Dilworth, of Remuera, Auckland, in which the question was whether a devise and bequest by Mr Dilworth for Hie purposes of an institute, to be called the Dilworth-Ulster Institute, war, a charitable gift exempt from the duty under the Deceased Persons'Estates Duties z 1 of. Mr Justice Conolly had held that it was not exempt. The, appellants, the executors under the (will, were represented by Sir Robert Stout, and Messrs Theo. Cooper and Gully represented the Commissioner of Stamps. Tho Court reserved judgment. The case of the Southland Frozen Meat Company v. Nelson Bros., Limited, was

opened on Thursday morning beforo the Court of Appeal. Sir .Robert Stout, with Mr Hall, appeared for the Southland Company, and Mr Fred Chapman, with Mr Hosking, appeared for Nelson Bros. The case is not properly an appeal, but the position is that in November last, at Dunedin, the Southland Company sued Nelson Bros, for .£30,000 damages for breach of an agreement. The agreement referred to was that Nelson Bros, thereby agreed and contracted with the Southland Company for tho purchase of tho Southland Company's out-put of fror.cn meat from their works at the Bluff for the period of three years from January 18.J1, upon condition that during that period Nelsons should not bo concerned in erecting or using other frozen meat works in Southland. Ihe alleged breaches of this agreement which went to the jury were : —That Nelsons, in May, 1802, purchased from the Hon J. G. Ward the output of his frozen meat works at Ocean Beach ; and also that in April. 1803, Nelsons entered into an agreement with Mr Ward for the purchase of these works, ft was agreed that the question as to whether these were broaches in law should be argued before tho Court of Appeal. The jury at Dunedin assessed the damages in respect of each breach at the sum of £3500, or £7OOO in ail. The Appeal Court is now deciding the question of law, though the form of the motion before the Court is that Nelson Bros. now ask the Court to nonsuit the Southland Company's action heard in Dunedin, or in the alternative to grant a new trial, 'the papers in the case, comprising tho evidence taken in Dunedin and the correspondence between the litigants, is very voluminous.