Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Penarth Harbour, Dock & Railway Co. dispute with Messrs. Smith, Knight & Co. . .

1873 - (September) - Penarth Dock, Harbour, and Railway Company. - "The thirty-fifth ordinary half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Company was held on Saturday at the Royal Hotel, Cardiff. Mr. W. S. Cartwright, Chairman of the Directors, in the chair.

There were present - the Hon. G. H. W. Windsor Clive M.P., Mr. Crawshay Bailey, Mr. H. J. Evans, Mr. G. S. Worthington, Mr. J. Lewis, and Mr. Cartwright, junior. the Secretary, Mr. Booth Bacon, read the notice convening the meeting, and the seal of the Company was affixed to the list of shareholders. . . .

They would remember that in the last report of the directors it was stated that the position of the Penarth Company with regard to the arbitration of Messrs, Smith, Knight, and Co. was this - that a meeting was to be convened between the different boards and the arbitrator, and the arbitrator was to listen to counsel on both sides. That meeting tookplace on the 2nd of July last, and the arbitrator gave what is called an interlocutory award.

By the term interlocutory award he understood that the arbitrator gave his decision on certain points in question in dispute between the trustees of the estate of Smith, Knight, and Co. and the Penarth Railway Company upon the principles which he should apply in making, and adjudicated on those principles on which he should find the amount due to the estate of Messrs. Smith, Knight, and Co., and the principles upon which that award would be based were largely in favour of the Penarth Company.

They knew before they started on this litigation that the Penarth Company had done certain things which, strictly construed, were not legal - that was, they had taken possession of a quarry which was outside the Penarth Railway.

That otherwise the cost of watching its safety, its deterioration, and the uncertain period over which the arbitration might extend would be such that it would be better to sell it, and he advised them to sell it but to give the utmost publicity to the sale, have it advertised, and get the best price they could for the plant.