[auction - bill of exchange]

Underwood v. Willis

Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land

Pedder C.J., 6 April 1838

Source: Launceston Advertiser, 12 April 1838[1]

The Attorney General for plaintiff; Mr. Stephen for defendant. -- This action was brought by Mr. J. C. Underwood, the auctioneer against Mr. R. Willis, of Wanstead, to recover the sum of £634 alleged to be due by the said defendant for cattle and sheep purchased at auction at Gaddesden, in December last. The plaintiff acknowledged to the tender of two bills of exchange, equal to the above amount, by Mr. E. Willis, son of the defendant, drawn by defendant and accepted by the said Mr. Edward Willis; but denied their bona fide acceptance as payment for the stock; alleging that he received them subject to a reference to the defendant. Collateral evidence was urged to shew that plaintiff never could have accepted the bills as a completion of the terms of sale; that he knew the defendant was about leaving the colony, and that he had no grounds for believing the acceptor’s name alone, to be valid in the mercantile world, for such an amount; and further, that from the close of the sale up to the moment of the defendant being about to sail for Sydney, (when he was arrested by plaintiff), the plaintiff was in correspondence, verbally and otherwise, with defendant upon the subject. And it was further urged, by the production of a letter of defendant to Mr. Penny, the owner of the stock sold, that defendant had never viewed the alleged acceptances of the bills from his son as an acceptance within the construction of the law. In Court, however, Mr. Edward Willis swore positively to the unconditional acceptance of the bills by the plaintiff, and the verdict was returned for Defendant.