ON 25 MAY 1895, Oscar Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labour.
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=def1-425-18950520&div=t18950520-425#highlight
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Category Archives: LAW FIRM
Women granted the vote in South Australia
ON THIS DAY in 1895, the Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act 1895 (SA) granted South Australian women (except for aboriginal women) the right to vote. SA was only the second jurisdiction in the world to do so following New Zealand (1893).
http://foundingdocs.gov.au/item-sdid-44.html
1894 | Sale of Goods Act
ON THIS DAY in 1894, the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted the Sale of Goods Act 1893. New South Wales enacted its own Act in 1923.
Browne v Dunn (1893) 6 R 67 (HL)
ON 28 NOVEMBER 1893, the House of Lords delivered Browne v Dunn (1893) 6 R 67 (HL).
A party who cross-examines a witness must, out of fairness, “put it” to the witness any contradiction they suggest arises from their evidence in order to give them an opportunity to explain the contradiction.
Per Lord Herschell at 70-71:
“…it seems to me to be absolutely essential to the proper conduct of a cause, where it is intended to suggest that a witness is not speaking the truth on a particular point, to direct his attention to the fact by some questions put in cross-examination showing that imputation is intended to be made, and not to take his evidence and pass it by as a matter altogether unchallenged and, then, when it is impossible for him to explain…to argue that he is a witness unworthy of credit.”
Sydney, Australia
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Electoral Act 1893 (NZ)
ON 19 SEPTEMBER 1893, New Zealand women were the first in the world to be granted the right to vote with the enactment of the Electoral Act 1893 (57 VICT 1893 No 18).
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R v Makin [1893] NSWLawRp 28
ON THIS DAY in 1893, the Supreme Court of NSW delivered R v Makin [1893] NSWLawRp 28; (1893) 14 LR (NSW) 1 (30 March 1893).
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWLawRp/1893/28.html
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Ex parte Ogden [1893] NSWLawRp 22
ON 17 MARCH 1893 the Supreme Court of NSW delivered Ex parte Ogden [1893] NSWLawRp 22; (1893) 14 LR (NSW) 86.
Married women and aliens were considered to be under a disability that prevented them from voting in municipal elections.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWLawRp/1893/22.pdf
Sydney, Australia
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Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1
ON 7 DECEMBER 1892, the England and Wales Court of Appeal delivered Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1; [1893] 1 QB 256.
Carbolic Smoke Ball Company was the manufacturer of the Carbolic Smoke Ball which they claimed could prevent “influenza, colds, or any disease caused by taking cold…”.
Carbolic promoted the product with the following advertisement:
“100 pounds reward will be paid by the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company to any person who contracts the increasing epidemic influenza, colds, or any disease caused by taking cold, after having used the ball three times daily for two weeks according to the printed directions supplied with each ball. 1,000 pounds is deposited with the Alliance Bank, Regent Street, showing our sincerity in the matter”.
On the strength of the advertisement, Carlill purchased the smoke ball, used it as directed but nevertheless caught the flue. She claimed the 100 pounds which Carlill refused to pay on the basis that there was no binding contract because the advertisement was a “mere puff” that meant nothing.
The Court of Appeal held that there was a binding contract.
Per Lindley LJ ((1893) 1 Q.B. 256, at p. 262): “…the person who makes the offer shows by his language and from the nature of the transaction that he does not expect and does not require notice of the acceptance, apart from notice of the performance.”
Sydney, Australia
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Smith v Charles Baker & Sons [1891] UKHL 2
ON 21 JULY 1891, the House of Lords delivered Smith v Charles Baker & Sons [1891] UKHL 2 (21 July 1891).
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1891/2.html
The English Court of Appeal had held that a railway worker could not recover damages for his injuries because he had voluntarily assumed the risk (volenti non fit injuria).
On appeal, the House of Lords held that the worker was not barred from recovery by the mere fact that he continued to work with the knowledge of the risk or danger. Whether or not the worker has assented to the risk is a question of fact not law.
The House of Lords reversed the Court of Appeal decision, holding that there was no evidence to find that the worker consented to the particular risk that caused his injuries.
Sydney, Australia
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Cooper v Stuart [1889] UKPC 1
ON 3 APRIL 1889, the Privy Council delivered Cooper v Stuart [1889] UKPC 1 (03 April 1889).
The Privy Council said that New South Wales was “a tract of territory, practically unoccupied, without settled inhabitants or settled land, at the time when it was peacefully annexed to the British dominions” rather than “a Colony acquired by conquest or cession, in which there is an established system of law”.
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