AN INTERSTING DECISION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 11985, 6 February 1903, Page 4

AN INTERSTING DECISION.

A most important case affecting dealers in -Vm and horse-owners was recently deciae.L in England. The plaintiffs m the ci s» were "tain dealers ana importers, wno <'ued a tiraTof carriets for a balance ot £9o ■.i.-ed to be dne for -Old Turk oats -■•vo-ied the defendants in November and BeVeaiber. 1694. The horsa-owneis refused TKivwaut on the ground that the oats supI piled them by the plaintiffs were thorough- inoculated and infested with the anthrax, which had caused an outbreak of the disease in their stables, irom -fc- effect" of which thev lost 14 horses, valued at £370. It was contended, moreover, bv the horse-owners that it was not MosObi for them to discover that the imported oats were infected with the spore !.f .luthrai. and in a cross-bill prayed the cr-tirt to grant them a veidict against the plaintiffs for the value ot" the horses killed, a« well ?s a release from the payment of the sum used for. The jury found for tiro iiur.-e-c-.vners, on the ground that at the time the oats were delivered they were ur-iuccWtabie, in consequence of a latent j detect that was not discoverable by a rea-s-cabla inspection. The Lcrd Chief Jusrice, who heard the case, then asked the jury if they deemed it to have been the dutv of the horse-owners to have thoroughly winnowed the oats before feeding them, "and the reply was that the jury did not consider the purchasers of the oats bounden, either directly or by iuference ; to cleanse or winnow grain that was delivered to them as sound and in good condition. It appeared, further, that- aiter the 14 horses had died, and the first lot of infected grain was made by thr. plaintiffs, from eating which four more horses died. Payment of the value of these four horses wis also sought, but- the plaintiffs agreed fc> pay for them, and judgment was therefoKi rendered for the defendants, releasing them from payment of £BS sued for in the beginning r.r.d awarding theai £330 as the value of the horses which cieu from the disease producea by the first m-feet-sd grain delivered by iiie piamtirls. This is a. case where equity -and law went hand io. hand.