Assault

ASSAULT.- COURT OF EXCHEQUER.- Williams v. Hall.- The plaintiff in this case, was a bookseller, and the defendant a plumber. From the plaintiff's evidence it appeared, that, on the 23rd of November last, the parties in the action, who had been before that time unknown to each other, met by accident at a public house in Smithfield. Some conversation having ensued upon the subject of duelling, the plaintiff expressed his disapprobation of the practice, and regretted much that, when he was in the army, he had been engaged in a duel with a brother officer, whom he shot dead. He afterwards, however, said, that it was fortunate for himself that he had not half a dozen sisters, as they would probably be the cause of his fighting so many duels, for if any man were to insult any of them, he would certainly challenge him.

The defendant, upon this, put a case, and supposing that the plaintiff had a sister, and that the defendant had seduced her, he asked the plaintiff how he should behave. To this the plaintiff answered, that he would blow out the defendants brains, and knock off his head. After a little more wrangling of the same sort, the plaintiff, after having repeatedly applied a disgusting epithet to the defendant, provoked him so much, that the latter, who had a wooden hand, screwed into a plate of iron at the end of the stump of his arm, proceeded to unscrew the wooden part of the limb, and assaulted the plaintiff with the remainder. The parties fought for a considerable time, and the plaintiff was at length carried home.

The witness who deposed on the part of the plaintiff, was cross-examined at great length, and admitted that all the original provocations proceeded from the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff had frequently referred, in terms of exultation, to the fact of his having shot one Callaway, at Malta, through the heart, and threatened to inflict the same fate upon the defendant. The witness, in his direct examination, swore that he was obliged to support the plaintiff to his house; but on his cross-examination he said, that the plaintiff wanted, at the end of the fight, to continue it longer, and that he boasted then of being able to beat fifty like the defendant.

Some descriptions were attempted of the peculiar weapon used by the defendant, but as he was in court, the Lord Chief Baron thought it more satisfactory that the thing itself should be exhibited, and accordingly Mr. Hall stood up, and unscrewing his hand, displayed the nature of the machinery to the Jury.

The Lord Chief Baron said, that the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict, but that it was for the Jury to say, what damages ought to be given in such a case — The Jury instantly, in a loud voice exclaimed, “A farthing! a farthing!"