November 18, 1897.]
THE GANG ROBBERY AND MURDER.
THREE ARRESTS,
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
383
champerty are not of force as specific laws in India and the decisions to this effect appear to their Lordships to rest on sonnd principles.. It is to be observed that the English Statutes on the subject were passed in early times mainly to prohibit high judicial officers from oppress-
Before ing the king's subjects by maintaining suits or purchasing rights in litigation. the acquisition of India by the British Crown these laws, so far as they may be understood to treat as a specific offence the mere purchase of a share of property in suit in consideration of advances for carrying it on without more, had become in a great degree iuapplicable to the altered state of society and property. They were laws of a special character directed may be, in against abuses prevalent, it England in early times, and had fallen into comparative desuetude. Unless, therefore, they were plainly appropriate to the condition of things in the Presidency towns of India it ought not to be held they had been introduced there as specific laws upon the general in- troduction of British law.
Their Lord- ships think
may properly be inferred from the decisions above referred to, and specially those of this tribuual, that a fait agreement to supply funds to carry on a suit. in considera- tion of having a share of the property if recovered onght not to be regarded as being per se opposed to public policy. Indeed, cases may be easily supposed in which it would be
indisputable fact persons were naturally led to enquire into the reasons of no such prosecution having taken place, particularly having regal to the fact that up to the present time numerous As briefly reported in our issue of yesterday, decisions had been come to in courts of law Tagang robbery was committed in a firewood in England upon agreements which had been dealer's shop in Burd Street at 9.30 on Monday held to be champertons, and yet no prosecutions night and one young mau was murdered. Four bad ever been instituted avainst the parties men, armed with revolvers, entered the shop to such champerious agreements. There had and a fifth man kept watch at the door. They been uumerous instances of persons suing upon pointed their weapons at the people inside, and agreements to share profits of a law snit forced the accountant to hand them the key of in consideration of an advance of funds to the safe. While this was going on, one of the prosecute such suit. but the only result had | shopmen managed, unperceived, to get to the been that such agreements had been heħl to ba
void on the ground of champerty, and as Mr. | first floor, where there was a door communicat- ing with the house in the rear. He met a Hastings and pointed out, other cases had arisen Chinese district watchman in the side street, where civil actions had been brought for dum- told him of the occurrence, and went in search ages in respect of champertons agreements. | of the police. The watchman instantly went Did his worship suppose that if the criminal to the scene, but being unarmed himself offence of champerty had not in England been did not dare to arrest any of the robbers, absolete no criminal proceedings would in any of these cases have been instituted, and did not His presence, however, caused them to beat
this conclusively point to the fact that prosecu- a hasty retreat. but they managed to take away with them $107 in money, a diamond ring,tions for champerty had fallen into disuetude. and a gold watch. To scare off pursuit they If he (Mr. Wilkinson) stopped here withont fired a volley down the street. One of the quoting authority Mr. Dennys might possibly shots hit a lad of fourteen, the bullet entering say that nevertheless the law still existed at the back of his right shoulder, and passing and that the high moral tone which it had out of his left breast. He died instantaneously. lately been sought to give the colony re. The police were informed of the crime as soon|quired that, notwithstanding that it had not as possible and happily three arrests were made been considered fit to proseente certain highly educatel gentlemen in England who might at 12.30 a.m. The mon
were arrested in a brothel iu Kwai Wa Lane and the gold watch reasonably be supposed to knew the law of champerly, yet a Chinaman barely able to read and $60 in money were found in the house.
English and necessarily ignorant of our ancient statutes and common law must be prosecuted for DOUBLE MURDER IN SHELLEY
au offence which our maxim of iquocuntia legis STREET.
neminem ræcusut procluded him from pleading that he was unaware of an offence which did A little after 7 o'clock on Sunday morning a
not appeal to our senses as being à erinie, and dastardly double murder was pertrated on the first floor of a small house situated at the one, moreover, which he had no hesitation in back of No. 24, Shelley Stret, the victims being saying almost every man in this colony with the a Chinese woman and her son. It appears that exception of those trained to the law had on Saturday night A Wa, a rent collector in hitherto been ignorant had been declared to be the employ of the Spanish Procnration, had been criminal. The reasons why the offence of drinking heavily and got inte a dispute on money champerty as a crime had become obsolete were Centuries ago the judges, and religions matters with his fellow lodger, very simple.
magistrates, and high officials of our courts A Fat. Yesterday morning the row recom-
were by no
as they are now, menced, and A Wa suatebing up a sharp Japan- ese sword about 2 feet in learth made a terrific corruptible, and cases frequently arose wherein stroke at his adversary, almost severing his head they faked up false cases-secure, in their from the trunk. The mother of the deceased, position. of winning them-for the purpose It who was present, instantly rushed upon the of making profit on their own account. murderer, but she too fell a victim to the fury was to prevent this that maintenance and cham. of the man, receiving seven or eight stabs.perty were declared to be criminal offences. The murderer next attempted to commit suicide by cutting his own throat, and when the police reached the scene he was in a very precarious state. He was conveyed to the Government Civil Hospital.
Kun Chi.
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Now that real justice could certainly be had the necessity for preventing maintenance had ceased. Every claim could be fairly tried by an upright judge or if desired by a jury as well. Indeed, by allowing maintenance the defeat of the ends of justice might frequently be prevented, particularly in such a place as Hongkong. THE CHAMPENTY CASE,
Take the present instance of a penniless Chii. nese fisherman who had lost bis all through the At the Magistracy on 8th Nov. Hon. H.E. Wodehouse concluded the hearing of the running down of his junk by a steamer belong. charge of champerty brought against Wouging to a powerful Company; ignorant of British Chuk Lam, an interpreter in the employ of Mr. justice and fearing that as in his own country 'might is right," was it not likely that if it K. W. Mounsey, and Pang Kun Chii, a broker.
were not for some snch men as Pang Kun Chi Mr. H. L. Dennys (Crown Solicitor) pro-
was represented by the proscention to be that secuted, Mr. J. Hastings defended Wong Chuk Lam, and Mr. C. D. Wilkinson defended Paug fisherman would be content to suffer his wrongs in silence? And could it be said that Pang Kun Chi was morally wrong in making au arrange ment to take part of the profits of the claim, if it proved to be a just one, after running the risk of losing whatever he advanced in the event of the claim turning out to be fraudulent? Before quoting the authority he had referred to, Mr. Wilkinson pointed out to the bench that the laws of Hongkong were framed to a large extent upon the laws of India and that the conditious of this colony were practically the same as the conditions in India. He then cited the case of Ram Coomar Coondoo v. Chunder Canto Mookerjee (2 Appeal Cases, p. 186), by which it was held that the English laws of maintenance and champerty were not of force in India and that a fair agreement to supply funds to carry on a suit in consideration of having a share in the property, if received,ught not to be regarded as being per se opposed to public policy and that such agreement did not establish a legal wrong. He quoted the words of the Judge who deliverel the judgment of the House of Lords in the case at considerable length the most important being as follows:-
Kwan Hoi Chuen, Managing Director of the Man On Insurance Company, gave evidence as to two shares being registered in the name of Chan Chi Kong in the month of April. Those shares were only transferred from his name on the 5th October. The scrip and transfer deed were produced.
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Chan Chat, clerk to Mr. K. W. Mounsey, Pan Yan Po, a trader, aud Chau Chi Kong. unemployed, likewise gave evidence.
Mr. Wilkinson then addressed the bonch ou behalf of his client, Pang Kun Chi, and stated that he understood that on Saturday last Mr. Hastings had applied for the immediate dis- charge of his client and in the course of his argament had submitted that the offence of champerty, regarded as a criminal offence, had become obsolete. He, Mr. Wilkinson, intended to continue that argument and to support it; in fact to make it conclusive by direct authority, and that authority the highest possible-the As Mr. authority of the House of Lords. Hastings had very correctly pointed out, for centuries past no criminal prosecution had even taken place in a British Court for the offences of maintenance and cliamperty. This being an
The result of the authorities then appears to be that the English laws of maintenance and
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furtherance of right and justice and necessary to resist oppression that a suitor who had a just title to property and no means except the property itself should be assisted in Mr. Wilkiusou finally pointed this manner."
out that the offence of champerty depended upou the proof of maiutouanco and in this case there had been no evidence whatever adduced on behalf of the prosecntion that any funds at all had been supplied by Pung Kun Chi. On the contrary the story of the prosecu. tion was that the funds had been provided by the other defendant, while the witnesses for Wong Chuk Lam bad proved that they had been supplied by another person altogether. Upon these grounds and the authorities he had cited he demanded the release of his client, who default of finding bail had been kept in cus- tody for over a week.
Mr. Hastings drew the Magistrate's attention to the provisions of section 7 of Ordinance 12 of 1873, by which such of the laws of England as existed on the 5th of April, 1843, were made of force in the colony "except so far as the said laws shall be inapplicable to the local cir- cumstances of the colony or its inhabitants.” He contended that as the ancient law of cham- perty and maintenance had been held to be in- applicable to India and its inhabitants such law must be at least equally inapplicable to this colony. He also contended that he had clearly proved by the evidence given by the witnesses for the defence that no agreement had been entered into by his client with Kwok Hin Tai and that no money had been advance by him for the suit; therefore Wong Chuk Lam was not guilty of champerty and he asked His Wor- ship to dismiss the charge.
Mr. Dennys said the charge was brought by the Government at the instigation of the P. & O. Company. Kwok Hin Tai had lost his all, his mother, his wife, his uncle, his son, and his junk. The P. & O. Company com
Of this amount pensated him with $2,000, Pang Kun Chi and Wong Chuk Lam divided between them 3950. Such an action could not be allowed to pass with impunity. It was Mr. Hastings had challenged mere robbery. him to cite the authority of any case of the kind that had occurred in Hongkong. He could not quote any case of champerty, but there was a third offence of the same nature viz., embracery, and he could show a case in which the defendant was convicted of embracery and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour. The case was tried in Hong- kong in 1877 and the culprit was named Davies, He might also refer to the judgment delivered
case of Li Pang and U Chuk - on 22nd March by Sir J. W. Carrington versus Yueng Min Shan. That case arose out in the of an agreement for $13,888.88 dated 8th No- agreement was void in law on the ground of vember, 1895. The defence alleged that the maintenance and champerty. His Lordship entered judgment for the defendant with costs,
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