Appendix CASE ONE - Collection Point® | The Total Digital Asset ...

174 Legal History in the Making
I. The History of Hickman v. The Kent or Romney Marsh Sheep Breeders'
Association
The Kent or Romney Marsh Sheep Breeders' Association was established
in 1895. 2 At about that time very many pedigree societies for all sorts of
farm animals were set up. Breed societies had been formed throughout the
nineteenth century but there was a new spate of formations at the time of
the great agricultural depression. These new societies not only gave a fillip to
farming in their areas but were also useful in the development of export trade. 3
One of the main functions of the Association, as it is of any such pedigree
society, was to certify animals as being genuine examples of their breed. In
the case of Romney Marsh sheep, flocks were regularly inspected and all pure
bred young animals were tattooed on the ear and their details recorded in the
flock book. It was another important function of such an Association to issue
pedigree export certificates; these were issued not for flocks but for individual
sheep and they were, obviously, important to export sales.
Alfred John Hickman, the plaintiff in this case, was a flockmaster on
Romney Marsh. (His nephews, Percy and Alfred Hickman, still are). The
Kent or Romney Marsh Sheep Breeders' Association was registered as a
company limited by guarantee on 23 April 1895. Hickman applied to join
on 11 November 1905 and was elected on 12 December 1905. The first
inspection of his flock took place in May 1906. There seems to have been
no problem at first; indeed Hickman was elected to the Association's council
in February 1912. But the fact that he resigned from the Council in December
1914 indicates that things had started to go wrong and that a dispute had arisen
between Hickman and the Association. On 18 December 1914 Hickman issued
his writ claiming a variety of declarations and injunctions. It appears from this
writ that the dispute was a furious one. Hickman asks for the Association's
secretary, Chapman, to be sacked; he wants the Association to stop trying
to expel him. And there was another dispute, presumably related. Hickman
claimed that the Association's minutes were not a true record; in particular it
was he, Hickman, who proposed the appointment of a committee to inspect
and tattoo his sheep, not Chapman. But the main point of the writ appears to
be Hickman's asking for an injunction ordering the Association to register his
sheep. (Why Hickman thought that a Chancery judge would be a good person
to assess whether or not his sheep were pure bred Romneys does not appear
in the court records).
When Hickman applied for his injunctions, declarations and orders, the
Association immediately argued that he could not bring such a court action.
The reason for this was said to stem from the fact that the Association was not
2 The Association's name was changed, about twenty years ago, to the Romney Marsh Sheep
Breeders' Society, to bring it more in line with the nomenclature of similar societies.
3 Examples of such breed societies for sheep are Shropshires (1883), Oxfords (1889), Hampshires
(1890), Lincolnshires (1892).