Cobham, Clerk to the Local Board of Heath for the District of Ware, in the county of Hertford, v Holcombe

cobham, Clerk to the Local Board of Health for the District of Ware, in the county of Hertford, v. holcombe. June 22nd, I860. A contract was entered into with the defendants by five persons named, who were members of a local board of health, for works to be done by the defendants. The five covenanted i" for themselves, their heirs, executors, and administrators," but the contract professed to be entered into by them " for and on behalf of the local board :"-Held] that the clerk to the local board was the proper person to sue for a breach of this Contract, by virtue of the 138th section of the Public Health Act, 1848, 11 & 12 Viet. c. 63. The declaration stated that Nathaniel Cobham, as and being the clerk to the local board of health for the district of Ware, in the county of Hertford, formed and constituted under and by virtue of the Public Health Act, 1848, sued Charles Thomas Holcombe,-For that, by articles of agreement, sealed with the seal of the said local a C. B. (K. S.) 8M. COBHA.M V. HOLCOMBE 1387 board, signed by five members thereof, made the 27th day of October, 1857, after the passing of a certain other act therein recited, that is to say, the Public Health Supplemental Act, 1849, between William Parker, Ambrose Frederick Proctor, Martin Hadsley Gosselin, Thomas Cobham, and Joseph Clenck the younger, being five members of the said local board, of the one part, and the defendant of the other part, reciting that the said local board had been duly formed and constituted under and by virtue oi the said Public Health Act, 1848, and that by the said Public Health Supplemental Act, 1849, it was, among other things, enacted that the local boards ander the said [816] Public Health Act might contract, for any period not exceeding three years at any one time, with any company or person, for the supply of gas or oil, or other means of lighting the streets, roads, and other open places, markets, and public buildings within their respective districts, and might provide such lamps, lamp-posts, and other materials and appurtenances as such local boards respectively might think necessary for lighting the same, and the expenses incurred by such local board in so doing should be defrayed out of the general or special district-rates (as the nature of the case might require) levied under the said Public Health Act; and reciting that the said local board, in exercise of the powers vested iri them by the said acts, had contracted with the defendant for lighting the streets, roads, aad other public places within their said district, with gas, for the time being, upon the terms, and subject to the conditions, covenants, provisoes, and agreements thereinafter expressed and contained,-it was witnessed that, in pursuance of the said agreement, and for carrying the same into effect, and in consideration of the covenants and agreements thereinafter entered into by the defendant, they the said William Parker, Ambrose Frederick Proctor, Martin Hadsley Gosselin, Thomas Cobham, and Joseph Clenck, the younger, did thereby, for themselves, their heirs, executors, and administrators, on behalf of the said local board, covenant with the defendant, his executors, administrators, and assigns, that it should be lawful for the defendant, and that the said local board should and would from time to time authorize, permit, and suffer the defendant, at his own proper costs and charges (subject as thereinafter mentioned), to dig and break up the streets, roads, and other o(jen places within the said district, for the purpose of laying down the main-pipes, branch pipes, service-pipes, and other [817] pipes necessary or requisite for lighting the said streets, roads, and other public places witibiu the said district, with gas, he the defendant doing as little damage or injury, and occasioning as little inconvenience as possible, and at his own costs and charges replacing, reinstating, levelling, and making good again the said streets, roads, ancj other open places with all convenient speed after the said pipes should be : so laid do^vn, to the satisfaction of the said local board, or their successors or surveyors for the time being; arid that it should be lawful for the defendant, from time to time, at his own proper costs and charges (subject as thereinafter mentioned), to have free access to the several main-pipes, branch-pipes, service-pipes, and other pipes then laid down (being pipes belonging to him) or thereafter to be laid down by him within the said district, and to dig and break up such parts of the said streets, roads, and other open places within the said district as should or might be necessary to give to him the said defendant free access to all and every the main-pipes, branch-pipes, service-pipes, and other pipes already or thereafter to be laid clown by him, for the purpose of repairing, relaying, altering, or replacing, or examining into the state of repair and condition of the said pipes and mains, or any or either of them : That the defendant did thereby covenant and contract with the said William Parker, Ambrose Frederick Proctor, Martin Hadsley Uosselin, Thomas Cobham, and Joseph Clenck the younger, their executors and administrators, in manner following, that is to say, that he the defendant would from time to time during the continuance of the said agreement, at his own proper costs and charges, well and sufficiently repair and keep and continue in good and sufficient repair, to the satisfaction of the said local board, of their successors or surveyor for the time being, all and singular the main-pipes, brunch-[818]-pipes, service-pipes, and other pipes, and also all and singular the several street lamps, lamp-posts, lamp-burners, and fittings, which were thereby by him agreed to be supplied with gas, and which wore the property of him the defendant ; and that he the defendant would, for and during the term of three years, to be computed from the 24th of June then last past, well and sufficiently light) or cause to be lighted, with the best made gas one hundred and four full bat's-wing lights to be 1388 COBHAM t'. HOLCOMBE 8 C. B. N. S.)...