Newton County Court: Friday, before M. Fortescue, Esq. Judge: Out of the 19 defended cases on the list. 10 were issued by the West of England Sack Co., and the total amount claimed in all cases was £120 17s 6d. — The first taken was the Sack Co., v. Pinsent & Sons, of Newton: Mr. Reed, Bridgwater, appeared for the plaintiffs, and Mr. Baker, for the defendants. The case was tried by a jury, and the claim was for £36, 0s 8d for the hire of a number of sacks, and for others not returned. — Evidence was called showing that the debt was made in October, November, December 1872, and had never been settled. Some of the items were for sacks ordered by other parties in Mr. Pinsent’s name without any written order from him, contrary to the printed instructions of the complainants. A number of others were charged to the defendant, which should have been charged to Mr. Hawke, the plaintiff’s agent at Dartmouth, who sold some barley to Mr. Pinsent and charged him with the sacks instead of himself. When they were returned, Mr. Hawke was credited with them, but 50 was never returned and consequently defendants were charged for them. There was another item in the account charging the value of six sacks which it was alleged were not returned although the defendants sent back a lot of sacks the six in question were not … … (illegible portion) … … been brought into the Court was very complicated and from the number of them it might be said that the Sack Companies and “tallymen” kept County Courts going (laughter) Mr. Reed replied on the case, and his Honour summed up at some length, the jury retired for half an hour, when they returned with a verdict for the defendants, his Honour allowing costs. The case lasted over six hours. The remainder of the Sack Companies cases were adjourned to the January Court, and in the meantime an arrangement will be made, if possible, to settle the whole of them by arbitration. The Court will be continued today (Saturday).
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0517 Devonport: John Ball Pinsent: 1844 – 1890