John Strachan, brick manufacturer, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh
John Strachan, brick manufacturer, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh or was he solely a merchant?
16/10/1880 – The Scotsman – Notice is hereby given that the company carrying on the business under the designation of “The Port Hamilton Stone, Lime, Brick, and Fire-Clay Goods Company” at 127 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh was dissolved on the 11th cult, by mutual consent. All accounts due to the firm must now be paid to the subscribers who are authorised alone to receive and discharge the amounts due to the firm. All accounts due by the firm will also require to be rendered to the subscribers within 4 days from this date with a view to settlement. The business in future will be carried on by Mr John Strachan, brick and fire clay merchant, Morrison Street, Edinburgh. T & W. A. McLaren, 51 Frederick Street, Edinburgh 15th October 1880.
19/10/1880 – The Scotsman – Damages for breach of contract. Evidence was led yesterday in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, before Sheriff Hallard, in an action brought by Messrs M. & J. Park, builders, Albert Place, to recover from Mr John Strachan, brick manufacturer and Mr James Sinclair, builder, his partner, the sum of £ 143 in name of damages for alleged breach of contract. A decree in absence had been granted to the pursuer and the action was now defended mainly on the ground of excessive damages. It appeared from the evidence that last year the defenders firm, now dissolved, undertook to supply the pursuer with bricks to complete a sub-contract, held by them for the erection of stables for the Tramway Company and in consequence of their failure, when the work was begun, to fulfil their contract, the pursuers had been obliged to provide bricks at a higher price. The Sheriff granted decree for the pursuers, with expenses …
04/11/1881 – Edinburgh Evening News – Curious proceedings in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court. In the Second Division of the Court of Session today, judgment was given in an appeal by John Strachan, brick and fire-clay goods merchant, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, against the judgment of the Sheriff of Edinburghshire. Strachan, it appeared, carried on business under the name of The Port Hamilton Stone, Lime, Brick, and Fire-Clay Goods Company, and the question in dispute was whether the business belonged Strachan himself, or to him along with John Torrance, Leith Walk; John G. Grieve, Southbridge; and John Kerr, Dairy Road, as the above company. It arose in connection with a claim by John Adams, lime burner, Crichton, for £48 due him for lime supplied to the company. To that claim, Torrance, Grieve, and Kerr pleaded that the goods were supplied to Strachan as carrying on a business by himself. At the same time, they had got hold of the books of the company and wished to wind it up on the footing that they were the sole partners. Accordingly, they paid Adams his account in full, and the action was thereafter dropped, but prior to its being abandoned Strachan had lodged defences, and he claimed expenses. Lord Young, giving judgment, said the procedure in the Sheriff Court was of a description that could not be countenanced. Strachan was entitled to be liberated from the action, and paid the amount of his expenses, which, he supposed, should have been about 10s or 12s. Instead of that £9 or £10 had been incurred in discussing before the Sheriff this matter of a few shillings. The Sheriff had pronounced decree against Strachan for the latter amount, and left the action in court, as it was before, with liberty to those three men to renew the unpleasant transaction about expenses whenever they chose. It was a curious proceeding, one that he had never seen the like of, and was quite irregular. The action in the Sheriff Court, he considered, ought to be dismissed as against Strachan, in respect that the pursuer declined to proceed with it, and Strachan found entitled to expenses. The Lord Justice Clerk and Lord Craighill concurred. (An associated article 05/11/1881 – Daily Review Edinburgh).