418 



"WAGERS. 



Price of 

 Mare to be 

 increased, if 

 she won, by 

 her Avin- 

 ninofs. 



Billiard 

 Match. 



Rotundity of 

 earth. 



Trotting 

 ao'ainst time. 



Agreement 

 ■with Tipster. 



In a ease where the plaintiff and defendant agreed that 

 the plaintiff should take the defendant's Mare in exchange 

 for that of the plaintiff; and that the defendant should 

 give the plaintiff half of the winnings of her first two races, 

 or, in case she should be sold before then, that the defen- 

 dant should pay the plaintiff one-third of what she should 

 have been sold for; it was held by the Irish Coui-t of 

 Common Pleas, that the above agreement, being one 

 simply to give an increased price for the Mare, upon 

 the occurrence of a state of facts, which might add to her 

 value, was a legal Contract, and not in the nature of a 

 Wager {m). 



Where an action was brought to recover a sum of money 

 lost by playing in the ordinary way with two persons at 

 billiards, the players having staked sums of money on suc- 

 cessive games ; it was held that such a transaction was not 

 within the proviso of the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, s. 18, inas- 

 much as the players did not contribute or agree to contri- 

 bute any sum to be awarded to the winner (;?). 



Where the plaintiff and W. deposited each 500/. with 

 the defendant, on an agreement that if W. on or before 

 the 15th of March, 1870, proved the convexity or ciu-vatiu-e 

 to and fro of the surface of any canal, river, or lake, by 

 actual measurement and demonstration to the satisfaction 

 of the defendant, W. would receive the two sums de- 

 posited ; but if W. failed in doing this, the two sums were 

 to be paid to the plaintiff — it was held that the agreement 

 was a wager, and consequently null and void within the 

 statute (o). 



So where H. and the plaintiff deposited 50/. each with 

 the defendant and entered into a written agreement that 

 the 100/. shoidd be paid to H. if his horse trotted eighteen 

 miles in an hour, and if not then to the plaintiff ; it was 

 held that the transaction was simply a wager, and did not 

 come within the proviso in 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, s. 18, as to 

 contributions to a prize or sum of money to be awarded to 

 the winner of any lawful game, sport, pastime or exer- 

 cise (p). 



And a wager under the disguise of a contract to pay a 



{m) Crofton v. Colffaii, 10 Ir. 

 Com. Law. Reps. 133. 



(«) Farso)is Y. Alexander, 1 Jur., 

 N. S. 660. 



(o) Ilampdcji v. Wahh, L. R., 

 IQ.B. D. 189 ; 45 L. J., Q. B. 238 ; 



33 L. T., N. S. 852 ; 24 W. R. 607. 

 ( p) Batson v. Newman, L. R., 1 

 C. P. D. 573 ; 25 W. R. 85. And 

 see Coombs v. Dibble, L. R., 1 Ex. 

 248 ; 35 L. J., Ex. 167 ; 14 L. T., 

 N. S. 415. 



