Order in Council of 12th of August 1842, relating to

taxation of costs

Act 6 & 7 Vict., c. 38, to make further Regulations

-

for facilitating the hearing of Appeals and other

matters by the Judicial Committee of the Privy

Council

Act 7 & 8 Vict., c.69, for amending the 3 & 4 Wm. IV.,
c. 41, and for extending the jurisdiction and
powers of Her Majesty's Privy Council

Rule of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,

directing Judges of the Colonial Courts to give

their reasons in writing for the Judgment ap-

pealed from

ix

xi

xix

XXV

CASES

HEARD AND DETERMINED

BY THE

JUDICIAL COMMITTEE

AND THE

LORDS OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF
CIVIL JUSTICE OF BRITISH GUIANA.

DONALD CHARLES CAMERON

AND

Appellant,

The Representatives of JAMES FRASER,} Respondents.*

deceased

Feb. 1842.

THE Appellant, Donald Charles Cameron, was origi- 4th & 5th nally the owner of a sugar plantation called Canefield, in the colony of Berbice. In 1816 he entered into a contract with Lewis Cameron, for the sale of a moiety

* Present: Lord Wynford, Lord Brougham, Lord Campbell, and the Right Hon. Dr. Lushington.

VOL. IV.

A. sold to B. a plantation in Berbice. The purchase-money was secured by bills of exchange

drawn by B. on houses in England: and as a further security, B. on receiving a transport of the estate, hypothecated the same to A. for the amount of the purchase-money then due on the bills, with interest and damages accruing thereon, declaring such mortgage to be a first and preferent charge. Some of the bills were protested and returned to the colony, and the plantation was in consequence sold under an execution-sale at the suit of A. The Supreme Court of British Guiana in adjudicating the claim of A. and the other creditors of B., held A. to have a preferential claim for the principal and interest due upon the protested bills, but refused to allow such right for the damages consequent thereon. The Decree, so far as it refused the preferential right for damages, held erroneous, and reversed.

An interlocutory order, referring matters of account to the sworn Accountant of the Court of Civil Justice in Berbice, with instructions thereon, is not such a definitive sentence as by the rules of the Civil Law requires a specific appeal, but may be questioned on a general appeal from the final sentence of the Court.

B

1842.

CAMERON

v.

FRASER.

of the plantation, cum annexis, with certain slaves
thereon, for the sum of £23,000 sterling. Part of the
purchase-money was paid at the time, and it was
agreed that the residue should be paid by instalments,
to be secured by a mortgage of the premises to be
granted by the purchaser on receiving a transport of
the plantation from the Appellant. On the 16th of
January 1819, there was due in respect of the pur-
chase-money, the sum £10,420, in payment of which,
Lewis Cameron drew three bills of exchange, of even
date, upon
Messrs. Campbell, Bowden & Co. of London,
payable to the Appellant on order respectively, twelve,
eighteen and twenty-four months after date, with
interest at the rate of six per cent., and damages at
123 per cent. per annum, as per agreement.

On the same day the Appellant agreed to sell the other moiety of the plantation to Lewis Cameron for the sum of £35,475 sterling, for which he drew six bills of exchange on Messrs. Davidsons, Barkly & Co. of London, in favour of the Appellant, payable in succession, at intervals of six months, with interest, the payment whereof was to be secured by mortgage, in like manner as upon the previous purchase. In pursuance of these agreements, an Act of Transport of the entirety of the plantation, cum annexis, was on the 12th of April 1819 passed in due form of law, by the Appellant, to Lewis Cameron: and on the same day an Act of Hypothecation of the estate was executed by Lewis Cameron to the Appellant, to secure as well the sum of £35,475, the purchase-money of the last moiety of the estate, as also the sum of £10,420, the residue of that due for the first. The mortgage-deed set forth the particulars of the sums due upon the several bills of exchange, and the respective