1232 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
Messrs. Adam & Charles Black and the Clark Company, 
Limited, brought an action against them on September 18, 
1901, in the High Court of Ontario, claiming that they were 
infringing their copyright in the work by importing into 
Canada reprints of the Encyclopaedia Britannica printed in 
the United States. It was urged on behalf of the Imperial 
Book Company that there was no sufficient registration of 
the work at Stationers’ Hall, and that the notice in writing 
required by s. 152 of the Imperial Customs Consolidation Act, 
1876, to be given to the Commissioners of Customs in Canada 
when an author desired to secure that reprints of his work 
should not be imported, had not been correctly given. They 
also contended that, since the passing of the British North 
America Act, 1867, the Parliament of Canada had had 
authority to legislate for Canada in regard to copyright and 
to override the Imperial Acts prior to 1867, and that the 
respondents had not complied with the requirement of the 
Canadian Statutes, and that accordingly they were not 
entitled to relief. 
The action was tried at Toronto on September 3, 1902, 
by Mr. Justice Street, who dismissed the claim with costs, 
on the ground that the notice given by the plaintiff to the 
Commissioners of Customs under s. 152 of the Customs 
Consolidation Act, 1876, was defective in that the date of 
the expiration of the copyright was incorrectly stated. The 
plaintiff, however, subsequently obtained leave to re-argue 
the case, and on January 26,1903, Mr. Justice Street delivered 
a second judgement! giving judgement in favour of the 
plaintiff, restraining the Imperial Book Company from 
:mporting and selling the Encyclopaedia, and directing the 
delivery up of unsold copies and an account of profits. In 
his judgement Mr. Justice Street decided that s. 152 of the 
Imperial Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, had never been 
in force in Canada because of s. 151 of the same Act, which 
provided that the Imperial Customs Act should extend to 
and be of full force in the several British possessions abroad 
except when any possession had made entire provision for 
*50., R. 184,