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Capel Curig Farmers at Loggerheads.

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Capel Curig Farmers at Loggerheads. An Alleged Malicious Prosecution. Action at Carnarvon Assizes. ON Tuesday, at the Carnarvon Assizes, William Williams and Richard Williams, farmers from the neighbourhood of Capel Curig, brought an action against Matthew Roberts, a neighbouring farmer, for alleged malicious prosecution. Mr Ellis J. Griffith, M.P., instructed by Messrs S. R. Dew and Co., Bangor, represented the plaintiffs, and Mr S. Moss, M.P., instructed by Mr J. E. Humphreys, Llanrwst, defended. Mr Griffith, in opening for the plaintiffs, said that they farmed hundreds of acres of uplands, and they had hundreds of sheep on the mountain side. It ap- peared that in July, 1902, William Williams sold two sheep to the defendant Robei ts, who removed them to his farm, but the sheep strayed back again and again. It was in respect of these sheep that the difficulties arose. On the T2th of June, igo, Richard Williams bought 13 sheep from William Williams. They were selected from a great number of sheep, taken home, and specially marked on the ear. Three days afterwards William Williams had 250 sheep penned in order to mark the l imbs. Robel ts came by, and William Williams, thinking of the two sheep that had strayed so ofíen, said Do you think any of your sheep are here ?" The defendant replied I have two or three wethers that ought to be heie." William Williams then told him to look round, and if he could not find them he had better come again next Saturday, when he would be marking more sheep He afterwards said that they miuht be amongst the 13 he had sold to Richard Williams. The men talked together for some time, but at last Roberts assumed a very suspicious attitude, and said he would go himself to see Richard Williams. The sheep were subsequently found among the 13 sold to Richard Williams, whereupon Roberts began to talk about somebody going to Carnarvon gaol. Roberts took an extraordinary course a few da\s afterwars, for on the 30th of June he took out summonses against these two men, against one for stealing and the other for receiving the sheep. The magistr ales dismissed the cases without calling the defence. Tnis prosecution cost the plaintiffs about Cii, and they sought to recover damages. The learned counsel said that their sole object was to vindicate their characters. They would be satis. fied at that stage with an apology and the payment of damages and costs. Mr Moss, M.P., the opposing counsel, made no response to this suggestion, and the case was pro- ceeed with. William Williams, the first of the two plaintiffs, gave evidence in support of the opening statement, and was then subjected to a long and searching cross-examination, much of it being of a technical character dealing with various ear-marks. Richard Williams, farmer, Blanynant, Trefriw, gave further evidence in support. After this witness'cross-examination, the Judge asked Mr Moss whether he was prepared to distin- guish now between the cases of this plaintiff, who had bought and paid full price for the sheep which had been the cause of the original prose- cution. Mr Moss said Richard Williams had, of course, seen Roberts's mark after the purchase. His Lordship said it was merely a question of the amount of investigation. The witness was here recalled, and the inter- preter being temporarily absent, the other plaintiff who had asked and been allowed to give his own evidence in Welsh, promptly jumped up and volunteered to act as interpreter, the whole court breaking into roars of laughter. Other witnesses having been called to prove that mistakes occasionally arose as to sheep, Mr Moss, for the defence, frankly admitted on behalf of his client that the plaintiffs were men of good repute. The defendant had at the time he instituted the prosecution acted as a reasonable man could have been expected to act, with no desire except to serve the ends of justice The defendant gave evidence that when he found his sheep among those sold to Richard Williams the other plaintiff admitted having marked one ear of the sheep himself without noticing that the witness's mark was on the other. He admitted the readiness of William Williams to do all he could to prevent disagreableness, but he declined to receive the sheep back, as he had been legally advised he might compromise himself by doing so. In the absence of a proper explanation he at the time of the prosecution thought William Williams had stolen the sheep. He never heard before of stray sheep being earmarked in that way. Numer- ous other farmers were called, the effect of their evidence being that while they knew of many cases of sheep getting marked, they had never heard of any being sold by mistake, as had been done in this case. The jury gave a verdict for the defendant as against William Williams, but a verdict in favour of Richard Williams, who was awarded £ 6 damages. »

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