DISPUTE OVER CAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 206, 1 September 1933, Page 3

DISPUTE OVER CAR.

PURCHASE AGREEMENT. COMPANY NONSUITED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. A finalised judgment was given to-day by Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the case of Dominion Motors, Ltd., against Edmund V. Cotter. The magistrate had held that certain conditions of the purchashing agreement used by Dominion Motors', Ltd., amounted to a penalty. He said to-day that, when the judgment of nonsuit was given, the question whether three instalments of the purchase money, amounting to £30, overdue at the date of repossession of the car, and the insurance premium of £10 3/2 paid a month prior thereto, were recoverable, was reserved for further consideration. While the contract was subsisting, stated the magistrate, these amounts could no doubt have been sued for, but repossession put an end to the contract's. It was not a hire-purchase agreement, but a sale and purchase agreement, so the instalments were not due for hire, but as part of the purchase moiley. The vendor's sole remedy, after repossession, became one for damages for breach of contract, and not one for recovery of any part of the purchase money. He thought recovery of the insurance premium stood on a similar footing. The amount would form an item for consideration in an action for damages, but, the agreement having been terminated, he did not think the premium could be separately recovered. Judgment for nonsuit must apply, therefore, to the whole of the claim, which was for £330. .