Law and Accounting: Pre-1889 British Legal Cases

This book contains edited versions of thirty British legal cases involving accounting issues decided from 1849-1888. These cases are a valuable source of information about the development of accounting principles and practices in nineteenth-century Great Britain. The thirty cases show that the court decisions involved a rich variety of accounting issues. In some cases courts upset private contractual stipulations regarding accounting and dividend matters. In others, management was held to have used incorrect principles in computing profits. Whether or not a contract or management decision was upset, the courts often discussed at some length the principles that management should apply in the preparation of balance sheets or income statements. It is therefore obvious that in resolving issues of equity among participants in British companies, the courts were applying normative accounting principles.

Introduction. 1. Burnes v. Pennell (1949) 2. Ex parte Spackman (1849) 3. Ex parte Holme (1852) 4. Ex parte Brockwell (1857) 5. Henry v. The Great Norther Railway Company (1857) 6. Corry v. The London derry and Enniskillen Railway Company (1860) 7. Bale v. Cleland (1864) 8. MacDougall v. Jersey Imperial Hotel Co. Ltd (1864) 9. Binney v. The Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company (1866) 10. Bloxam v. Metropolitan Railway Company (1868) 11. Rishton v. Grissell (1868) 12. Turquand v. Marshall (1868) 13. Stringer's Case (1869) 14. Rance's Case (1870) 15. Mills v. Norther Railway of Buenos Ayres Company (1870) 16. Salisbury v. Metropolitan Railway Company (1), (1869) 17. Salisbury v. Metropolitam Railway Company (2), (1870) 18. Bardwell v. Sheffield Waterworks Company (1872) 19. Lord Rokeby V. Elliot (1878) 20. Davison v. Gillies (1879) 21. Dent v. The London Tramways Company Ltd (1881) 22. City of Glasgow Bank v. Mackinnon (1882) 23. Flitcroft's Case (18823) 24. In re Alexandra Palace Company (1882) 25. Lambert v. The Neuchatel Asphalte company Ltd (1882) 26. In re Frank Mills Mining Company (1883) 27. In re Oxford Benefit Building and Investment Society (1886) 28. Midland Land and Investment Corporation Ltd (1886) 29. Leeds Estate, Building and Investment Company v. Shepherd (1887) 30. Kehoe v. The Waterford and Limerick Railway Company (1888).