A SHIPPING CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 295, 13 December 1899, Page 2

A SHIPPING CASE.

Bad trade was the cause, of the lawsuit in which the N.Z.S. Co was plaintiff and Messrs D. and C. Maclver, of Liverpool, shipowners, were defendants, and which was tried by Mr Justice Bigham in the Commercial Court last Wednesday. In February last a contract was made between Messrs Maclver and the_company by which the Tongariro and Ruape'hu were to be employed in the Madver's line between Liverpool and Canada. The defendants were to receive a commission of 2-J- per cent, on freights as well as half of the profits made by the company in excess of the profit it would make, on a time charter party hire of £700 a month for each vessel, and were to pay the company all the steamers' earnings less their own commission and the ordinary disbursements of the vessels. They were to render promptly t# the company^complete and duly vouched voyage accounts. The company was to bear all risks, losses and expenses arising from the employment of the vessels, and might withdraw the vessels on giving four, months' notice. Homeward freights were depressed, the vessels didn't pay their way, and the defendants incurred liabilities for disbursements, to meet which they applied to the company for cash. The company contended that the defendants should satisfy these liabilities in the first instance, but to prevent the arrest of one vessel at Montreal made on May 12 an advance to the defendants under protest, at the same time complaining that the latter had not rendered the monthly voyage accounts promptly. On May T5 the company gave notice to terminate the contract at the expiration of four months, but on 31st May withdrew the vessels at the end of their current voyages and cancelled the contract on the ground that the defendants had failed to render accounts and to pay disbursements. In the present action the company claimed a declaration that it. was thus entitled to withdraw its vessels and the defendants counterclaimed for dam« ages for the loss of future commissions and for payment of sums expended by them for the company. The accounts relating to the latter item were settled out of court, and Mr Justice Bigham found against the company, and awarded the defendants £600 damages for the commission® they would have earned had the vessels continued running for another four months. He held that the defendants had rendered accounts within a reason able time, and their failure to find money for disbursements was not a breach of the contract, and that even if it had been it did not go to th© root of the contract, and that, furthermore, the company had chosen not to treat it as a breach, but had gone on treating the contract as still subsisting subject to termination by four months notice. - t

This is not an Anglo-colonial story, but it is Imperial in the largest and finest sense of the word. Also, it won't take long to tell. Last Saturday an old Scotch fisherman and his four sons went out as usual in pursuit of daily bread. Their boat got upset and three of the lads were at once carried down into the vortex by a swirling eddy. The old man managed to get hold pi an oar, and by-and-bye his second son appeared, swimming by his side. Seeing that the oar could only support one, the lad bade his parent farewell, eying, "Weel, weel, father, I maun jist awa'J" and sank. The old man was picked up unconscious half an hour afterwards.