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PRO Ref: RAIL125/28: Case for Advice:
Summary by SJT.
Coliford Monmouth Usk and Pontypool Railway
vs.
Sharpe
Coliford Monmouth Usk and Pontypool Railway was incorporated
by an Act passed in 1853. Shares were fixed at £20 and
£4 per share was the greatest call which the Company could
make on the Shareholders. Three months was to be the
interval between each call.
Mr. James Denniston was
apparenly, a partner of Robert Sharpe, and he wrote a letter
to Mr. Osmond A. Wyatt, Esq., one of the Directors of the
railway company, requesting thirty shares in the name of
Robert Sharpe & Co.
My Dear Sir,
Pray excuse my not replying to
your favor of date so far back as the 6th December last till
now. On its receipt I wrote to my partners inquiring
what number of shares in the Pontypool Railway Coy. they
would sanction my taking in the name of Robert Sharpe and
Co. (for I am prevented by our Deed of Co-partners from
acting on my own account) and I have only now received their
reply - they are willing to take thirty shares in the name
of the firm as a 'bona fide' investment and request if still
in your power, to name them as Shareholders for that extent
of share.
You will I am sure excuse my
long delay in replying which arose solely from the reason I
have stated, and sincerely hoping that your project is
proceeding beyond your expectations.
I am my dear sir, yours
faithfully,
James Denniston
Steam Hour Mills
Chepstow, 6th February 1854
Several calls were made on the
shares in question from 1854 to 1855, some of which Sharpe
and Co. paid for, and some of which they did not. The
following year, the company pressed for payment of the
arrears of £270, but their letters were not answered.
In December 1857 the Company sent a letter threatening legal
action. A reply was received from Robert Sharpe &
Co., refusing to pay, and denying that he held any shares in
the Railway Company. He stated that he had no
documents relating to it and that any shares entered in his
name had been so without his authority.
The secretary of the company
replied to this letter, stating that Mr. Sharpe must have
made a mistake; his company had already paid for four calls totaling
£330, and that a certificate for the 30 shares had
already been issued.
Robert Sharpe replied personally
to this letter, and stated clearly that he had never
authorised the purchase of any shares in the railway
company, nor subscribed his name to any document relating to
it.
CMUPR must then searched through
their records to find evidence that Robert Sharpe did in
fact know about the shares. They found what they were
looking for in a document from 1854; the railway company's
engineer had reported to the board that a saving of £7000
could be effected by making a deviation of the line.
The company had sought the approval of all shareholders,
including Robert Sharpe, who had returned a document to them
which gave his approval to the adoption of the new plans,
and most importantly named him as a shareholder.
In 1858, John Gray, the
company's legal man, advised that he thought the case could
proceed to trial, with a fair expectation of success.
However, James Denniston, who would have been a key witness,
had since died, having previously broken ranks with Robert
Sharpe and left their base at Chepstow. Gray also
proposed that Mr. Antrobus should be sought out, who had
been either a partner or clerk for Robert Sharpe, and had
signed some of the letters when payments had been made.
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