Martin against Ford
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 25 January 1793 |
| Date | 25 January 1793 |
| Court | Court of the King's Bench |
English Reports Citation: 101 E.R. 58
IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH.
martin against ford. Friday, Jan. 25th, 1793. The stat. 9 An. c. 10, s. 40, which inflicts a penalty of 201. on persons who willingly open, or detain letters, after they have been delivered at the post-office, only extends to persons in the employment of the post-office. This was an action of debt to recover a penalty of 201. for not delivering a letter, directed to the plaintiff, under the stat. 9 Ann. c. 10, s. 40: which enacts, that "No person or persons shall willingly or knowingly open, detain, or delay any letter after the same is delivered into the General or other Post-Office, or into the hands of any person or persons employed for the receiving or carrying post letters, and before delivery to the persons to whom they are directed, or for their use,":under a penalty of 201.; "and that the person or persons so offending shall, over and above such penalty, be for ever incapable of having, exercising, or enjoying, any office, trust, or employment, in or relating to the post-office, or any branch thereof." At the trial at Wells, before Buller J. the following special case was reserved : The plaintiff and defendant both reside at Beekington, a small village three miles from Froome in Somersetshire, which is the nearest post-town. There is no postmaster at Beckington ; nor is it a post-town or stage, nor a place where any post-mark is put on letters. For many years before the establishment of a mail coach, which passed through Froome and Beckington to Bath, [102] the inhabitants of Beckington sent a person to the post-office at Froome three times a-week for their letters, and paid him one penny for each letter. While the mail coach passed through Beckington the letters for the inhabitants were brought by the guard. About four or five years ago the mail coach ceased to go through Froome and Beekington, when the postmaster at Froome was directed by the Post-Master-General to send the letters from Froome to Bath on horseback. Upon this the post-master of Froome went to Beckington, and there agreed with the defendant, in the presence of some inhabitants of Beckington, that the letters for the inhabitants of Beckington should be left at the defendant's house for him to deliver them to the inhabitants; the defendant's servant being to be paid one halfpenny per letter for delivery, and the post-boy, leaving the letter at the defendant's house, the other halfpenny. The...
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Tisdell against Combe
...means of such an assumption : the purview of the statute must be looked at, together with the words actually used, as in Martin v. Ford (5 T. R. 101). The greater strictness is necessary here, as the Act, though public for the purpose of pleading, is in its nature a private Act, in favour o......