A BIG LAWSUIT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3337, 12 December 1883, Page 2

A BIG LAWSUIT.

In a note to “ Bleak House" there is mention made of a Chancery case in which so many counsel were engaged that they filled all the seats set apart for the bar. There is a case shortly to be heard before Vice-Chancellor Bacon which will make an equal demand npon the services of the Equity bar. Half a million of money is in dispute. There are ten defendants, who have all pnt in separate defences and employed separate solicitors and counsel. Three counsel are briefed for each defendant ; and the plaintiff, which is a company, has either three or four. Thus there will be over thirty barristers engaged in the case. The leading counsel for the plaintiff company baa £IOOO marked on his brief, and as the case is expected to last a month, there will be plentiful “refreshers” to reckon upon. Several of the other counsel have £2OO and £3OO on their briefs, and even the juniors have £SO. The pleadings in the case are bound up in a large. folio volume, and the brief is too heavy to be carried by one clerk. It is some time since so Brobdignagian a lawsuit has been heard of. Many fortunes have been lost and won over the Alexandra Palace estate, and now the lawyers arQ--to have their pull.