MOTOR SALES CASE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 27, 13 November 1935, Page 7

MOTOR SALES CASE

JUDGMENT FOR £36,000 GIVEN.

THE COSTS TOTAL £40,000.

STRICTURES BY THE JUDGE. United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, November 12. “Mr Chrysler js said to be one of the foremost industrialists in America, but some of his answers show that his standard of business morality is lamentably low.” With these and other severe comments, Mr Justice Atkinson, in the' King’s Bench Division, gave judgment after a 63-days’ hearing, against a group of defendants representing Chrysler undertakings in favour of Arnold de la Poer,’ of Cadogan ■ Court, Londchi, and a Canadian company known ’as • the Suffolk Investment Company. Plaintiffs claimed that De la Poer, jn 1928, was forced by the threats and misrepresentations of the defendants to sell, at under their value, shares he held’ in Chrysler Motors, Ltd. which in 1925, he received under a sales agreement from the Sales Corporation, The Judge said that Chrysler and the other defendants did not hesitate, through counsel, to charge De la Poei and another with conspiring to give falsa evidence, forgery, deception and blackmail, although they must have known that there was not the slightest justification. “I am convinced that the real reason for the termination of the sales agreement with the English company was that the English market had become very profitable, in sharp contrast to the situation when the bales Corporation sold to the plaintiffs. Mr Justice Atkinson gave judgment for £3500, with costs, for De la Poer, with interest from March 1, 1928, and £36,000 and interest similarly for the Suffolk Investment Company. His Lordship agreed to hear counsel as regards the allocation of damages among the Corporation and its subsidiaries. It is unofficially estimated that the costs will exceed £40,000.