Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley

The Right Honourable The Lord Lindley PC KC FRS FBA
File:LordLindley cropp.jpg
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 10 May 1900 – 2 December 1905
Preceded by	The Lord Morris
Master of the Rolls
In office 19 October 1897 – 9 May 1900
Preceded by	The Lord Esher
Succeeded by	The Lord Alverstone
Personal details
Born	Nathaniel Lindley (1828-11-29)29 November 1828 Acton Green, London, England
Died	9 December 1921(1921-12-09) (aged 93)
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Parent	John Lindley
Education	University College School
Alma mater	University College London

Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley, PC, KC, FRS, FBA (29 November 1828 – 9 December 1921) was an English judge.

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.

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 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

Coat of arms of Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley

File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg File:Lindley Escutcheon.png

Crest In front of a Pelican in her piety Argent, vulning herself proper, and charged with a Pheon point downwards Or, three Quatrefoils fesswise Or. Escutcheon Argent, on a Chief nebuly Azure, a Quatrefoil between two Griffin’s Heads erased Argent. Supporters Dexter: a Griffin wings elevated Argent, standing on a Fasces proper. Sinister: a Pelican wings elevated Argent, vulning herself and standing on a Fasces proper. Motto SIS FORTIS (May you be brave)

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
• Learoyd v 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)

References

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Further reading

• .

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Lindley
• Portraits of Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley at the National Portrait Gallery, London