INTERESTING APPEAL

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 210, 3 September 1917, Page 2

INTERESTING APPEAL

MAGISTRATE'S DECISION UPHELD. The question as to whether a shipping company is .liable ".to pay damages assessed on the assumption that the value of the Whole set .was destroyed'by the breaking of billiard table slates constituting a part of the set while being carried in a steamship when no notice is given the company of the fact that the slates are in specially prepared sets, formed the subject of a judgment given by his Honor Mr Justice Cooper this morning on an appeal against the decision of Mr C. C. Kettle, S.M, in the civil action William Watson v. the Union Steamship Company. In reviewing the case his Honor said it was admitted that by the breaking of one slate of the set the whole set was rendered useless, and that it becomes necessary to obtain a complete new set, and that the respondent had made good the damage to the tables in the least expensive way. The breaking of the five sets destroyed two sets of slates, and the measure of damages was the cost of replacing the articles destroyed, and this could not be done without the purchase of new sets of slates. Continuing, his Honor said "the damages awarded by the magistrate may be fairly said to have been in the contemplation of the parties as the natural consequence of the breach of contract on the part of the company." The appeal was dismissed, with £7 7/ costs.