Coal Dues
A substantial case before Judge Richard Adams examined the Mayor of Limerick’s asserted right to receive dues upon coal brought into the city. The proceedings, reported on 12 January 1900, required the court to consider whether this inherited privilege rested upon royal charter, lease, long-established prescription or some combination of those authorities. Counsel disputed both the legal foundation of the claim and the capacity in which the Mayor exercised it. What appeared to be an obscure municipal custom therefore became a serious test of whether an ancient commercial right remained enforceable within Limerick’s modern port economy.
