Time was that if you owed a sufficiently large sum of money, your creditor could obtain a judgement against you in the High Court, he could then obtain a writ of feria fericas and instruct the Sherrif's officers of the relevant Balliwick to levy execution against your belongings. (in other words come around your house and take your stuff).
And so it came to pass, in the year of our lord 1992, that an African National Airline, had conspicuously failed to pay for their aircraft fuel and owed Shell at Manchester Airport a suitably large amount of dosh.
At that time, there was an articled clerk (me) working in the office of the Under Sherrif of Cheshire, within whose Balliwick Manchester Airport fell. And so armed with our sealed writ, one Wednesday morning the Under Sherrif and me headed off to Manchester Airport. Where we were met by the head of airport security and chauffered down the run way in one of those little brown cars with the orange light on top and the siren (always wanted to do that!). When we got to the plane, we stuck a sealed writ on the door, while the airport mechanic took the battery out of the engine. We went up to the cockpit - where the amount of loose wiring hanging down everywhere was scary - and stuck another writ on the dashboard (is that what you call it?) . And then we all went home.
Boss had a much more interesting time later when I was back at law school - evicting Swampy and his mates during the Manchester 2nd runway protest.
Followers
Listening to/reading/watching
- Spooks, Heroes and Little Dorrit
- The Ascent of Money
- Fountains of Wayne, Dusty Springfield, Nickleback, Talking Heads
Cluster Map
Sunday, December 14, 2008
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6 comments:
I love the idea of driving, all sirens and flashing lights to repossess a plane. I found myself on the receiving end of that sort of thing while on a plane in Italy - best to say no more really...
What a fantastic story! My imagination has you rushing around the airport at break-neck speed with lights fired up and sirens blazing. Oh, and of course, you look fabulous, all wind in your hair and so forth, clutching your parcel of papers.
From what you've said, I shouldn't imagine that my thoughts bear much resemblance to actual events.
Good wourk, your a legend ....
Laters
Nicey
Crikey Lulu poor you - hope you weren't delayed too long.
La coquette - factor in Manchester drizzle and it tones down the glamour factor no end! We did have the siren's going though!
Nicey - you too mate!
Sirens! Bond!
Although I was imagining it was prepared for take off and you singlehandedly stopped it.
DB - sadly not, it was parked quietly off to one side of a runway.
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