My Christmas Eve mail one year included a Torry Holt St. Louis Big Game Shirt summons to attend a county court hearing soon after Christmas in January in connection with an association of which I was an officer. At the time the association was collapsing in acrimony with endless quarrelling between the members, and a member who had been expelled from it was taking myself and three other officers to court for unfair expulsion. As the case was not properly defended by the association member who had the task of defending it, this member was awarded his costs, which were about £4,000, and so I and three other officers had to pay about £1,000 each out of our own pockets, as the association was insolvent. I hasten to add that the litigation in connection with this association (which involved three different court hearings) was the only time I have ever been involved in any kind of civil litigation in my entire life. A few years later I received another court summons on Christmas Eve, this time a summons to a local magistrates’ court in connection with a motoring offence, namely receiving four speeding penalties within three years. When I appeared in court in January again, the magistrates told me that they could see no reason why I should not be disqualified from driving, and so I was disqualified for a six month period I also hasten to add this was the only time in my life I have ever been the defendant in a criminal court (and of course the only time I have ever been disqualified from driving). Naturally both of these items of mail arriving as they did on Christmas Eve somewhat marred my Christmases in those two years.
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