Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley
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Through Jurisprudence, Joint-stock company and Equity (law)
Early life
He was the second son of the botanist Dr. John Lindley, born at Acton Green, London. From his mother's side, he was descended from Sir Edward Coke. He was educated at University College School, and studied for a time at University College London, and the University of Edinburgh and University of Cambridge in 1898 and achieved Doctor of Civil Law in University of Oxford in 1903.
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Legal career
He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1850, and began practice in the Court of Chancery. In 1855 he published An Introduction to the Study of Jurisprudence, consisting of a translation of the general part of Thibaut's System des Pandekten Rechts, with copious notes. In 1860 he published in two volumes his Treatise on the Law of Partnership, including its Application to Joint Stock and other Companies, and in 1862 a supplement including the Companies Act 1862. This work has since been developed into two textbooks well known to lawyers as Lindley on Companies and Lindley on Partnership. Among his pupils were Francis William Maclean, later Chief Justice of Bengal, and Frederick Pollock.
He took silk in February 1872. In 1874 he was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple, of which he was treasurer in 1894
Judicial career
In 1875, he was appointed to be a Serjeant-at-law and a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, the appointment of a chancery barrister to a common-law court being justified by the fusion of common law and equity then shortly to be brought about, in theory at all events, by the Judicature Acts.
In 1875, he was knighted. In 1880 he became a justice of the Queen's Bench and in 1881 he was raised to be a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal and was sworn of the Privy Council.
In 1897, Lord Justice Lindley succeeded Lord Esher as Master of the Rolls, and in 1900 he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary with a life peerage and the title of Baron Lindley, of East Carleton in the County of Norfolk. He resigned the judicial post in 1905.
Prior to the 1875 reforms, the appointment of serjeants-at-law had already declined, but common law judges could only be appointed from amongst the serjeants-at-law, so it was customary for any appointee who was not yet a serjeant to be appointed a serjeant immediately prior to being appointed a judge. As the requirement for common law judges to be serjeants was abolished shortly after, Lord Lindley became the last serjeant-at-law appointed, and the last judge to wear the serjeant's coif, or rather the black patch representing it, on the judicial wig.
Mount Lindley in Antarctica is named after him.
Family
He married Sarah Katharine, daughter of Edward John Teale of Leeds, on 5 Aug 1858. He died at home in East Carleton, near Norwich, in 1921. They had nine children, including diplomat Sir Francis Oswald Lindley and the army officer Major-General John Lindley.
Coat of arms
Writing
Lord Lindley published two notable works, Lindley on Companies and Lindley on Partnership. The latter is still published today, as Lindley and Banks on Partnership, now in its 21st edition (2022).
Cases
Company law
- Allen v Gold Reefs of West Africa Ltd [1900] 1 Ch 656
- Illingworth v Houldsworth [1904] AC 355, on floating charges
- Isle of Wight Rly Co v Tahourdin (1884) LR 25 Ch D 320 - a UK company law case on removing directors under the Companies Clauses Act 1845.
- Salomon v A Salomon & Co Ltd [1897] AC 22
Contract law
- Allcard v Skinner (1887) 36 Ch D 145
- Byrne v Van Tienhoven [1880] 5 CPD 344
- Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1, [1893] 1 QB 256, [1892] 2 QB 484 (QBD) - an advertisement containing certain terms to get a reward constituted a binding unilateral offer that could be accepted by anyone who performed its terms.
- Creen v Wright (1875–76) LR 1 CPD 591
- Foakes v Beer (Lindley sitting in the Court of Appeal) [1884] UKHL 1, [1881-85] All ER Rep 106, (1884) 9 App Cas 605; 54 LJQB 130; 51 LT 833; 33 WR 233 - a leading case from the House of Lords on the legal concept of consideration
- Parker v South Eastern Railway (1877) 2 CPD 416
Property
- Colls v Home and Colonial Stores (1904)
- Chatenay v Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company Ltd [1891] QB 79 - choice of law in relation to transactions under foreign powers of attorney
Tort
- Quinn v Leathem [1901] AC 495
- Robinson v Kilvert (1889) LR 41 ChD 88
Trusts and equity
- Speight v Gaunt (1883) 9 App Cas 1
- In re Whiteley (1886) 33 Ch D 347, 355
Other
- Knox v Gye (1872)
- In re Addlestone Linoleum Co (1887) 37 Ch D 191
- South Hetton Coal Co v Haswell, Shotton and Easington Coal and Coke Co [1898] 1 Ch. 465
- Taff Vale Railway Co v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] AC 426
- Scottish Free Church case [1904] AC 515
- Shepheard v Broome [1904] AC 342
Books
- Nathaniel Lindley, An Introduction to the Study of Jurisprudence; Being a Translation of the General Part of Thibaut’s System des Pandekten Rechts (William Maxwell, 1855)