EXCHEQUER COURT, Nov. 3.
FLEMING v. HECTOR, M.P.
This was action against the defendant. M. P. for Petersfield. for 63l., the amount of an account for wine furnished to the "Westminster Reform Club.” It was tried before Lord Abinger some time ago, when the Jury found verdict for the plaintiff, with leave to the defendant to move a nonsuit, or reduce the verdict to nominal damages. Mr. Thessiger, to-day, applied for such a rule. The Club in question had been instituted in the year 1834. In 1835 the defendant became a member, and paid his subscription. Club was broken up in 1836, when a call was made on several of the members for payment of the advances on account of the Club. As evidence of the defendant’s liability, the rules of the Club, were put in at the trial; and it was proved by a waiter that when the defendant dined there he was in the constant habit of calling for "Fleming's port." The doctrine which the Lord Chief Baron had laid down at the trial that each member of a Club was liable for the whole Club, was, in the opinion of the Learned Counsel, somewhat too wide, and might be attended with alarming consequences. Mr. Thessiger also contended against the defendant's liability, on the ground that long before he had become a member the plaintiff had supplied wine to the Club, and that the payments made after the time at which he became a member were more than sufficient to cover the value of the wine ordered during the time that he was a member.
The Court granted the rule.
Their Lordships rose a little before two.