APPEAL ALLOWED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 9

APPEAL ALLOWED.

MEASUREMENT OF BENZINE. A decision of interest to service station proprietors was delivered in' the Supreme Court at Palmerston North last week, when Mr. Justice Blair reversed the decision of tlie magistrate in the recent case between J. 11. Bodle, service station proprietor, and the Vacuum Oil Co. Pty., Ltd. The case arose over an alleged over-payment for benzine supplied by the company, due to the use of measuring rods "wrongly and falsely calibrated," as stated in the original claim by Mr. Bodle. In reversing the decision of the magistrate, who had found in favour of Bodle, Mr. Justice Blair gave a lengthy description of the process of measuring the contents of a petrol tank. He said that there was no definite proof of erroneous calibration (or measurement) at any particular point of time between August, 1920, and May, 1932. Concerning the magistrate's statement, "In my opinion there is no doubt that the method of calibration favours the oil companies," the judge r.aid that with the facts before him he could not arrive at any other than an opposite conclusion. The result could easily be and in many cases it would be a gain instead of a loss to respondent (Bodle). Commenting on another statement in the magistrate's judgment, "Even on the company's own figures he has been under-supplied," the judge said, "Not only was there no evidence to support such a finding, but the contrary is the case." The appeal was therefore allowed with costs, and judgment was directed to be entered in the Magistrate's Court for appellant with costs in that Court.