ANCIENT CUSTOM.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16799, 29 May 1926, Page 3

ANCIENT CUSTOM.

UNTYING LEGAL KNOTS. Many legal celebrities recently attended a moot, presided over by Mr. Justice Sankey, in the Middle Temple, London. These moots or meetings originated many centuries ago, and law students in the Inns of Court, which is the name of the four English legal societies with the exclusive right of calling persons to the Bar, there debate ticklish questions of law. The recent meeting was the first since the war, and the question argued related to a man A, who offered in writing to supply a man, B, with motor tyres at a certain price. B replied by letter agreeing to purchase the tyres, but soon after he had posted the letter of acceptance discovered that the tyres did not suit his car. He then sent a telegram to A cancelling the order, which was received by A before the letter from B was delivered. When the letter arrived, A ignored the telegram and despatched the tyres, which were refused. A then brought an notion against B to make him pay, but th.e case was dismissed, the Court holding that on the above facts there was no contract. Giving judgment, Mr. Justice Sankey said that the facts of this case raised a point never expressively decided in English law, although many different opinions had been taken in other countries. He was inclined to think that the appellant A’s views had been upheld in the majority of cases, but had to admit that it was a “moot” point.