SOUTHLAND FROZEN MEAT COMPANY V NELSON BROS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9162, 20 July 1895, Page 8

SOUTHLAND FROZEN MEAT COMPANY V NELSON BROS.

(PB.ESS ASSOCIATION TELEGEAM.) DUNE DIN", July 19. A phase of the case in which the Southland . Frozen Meat Company claimed £30,000 damages from Nelson Brother* for alleged breach of agreement, came liefore Mr Justice Williams in Chambers today, in the shape of a summons for the discovery of docmneuts and one for interrogatories. The plaintiff Conopauy, in 1391, made an agreement to sell to the defendants the whole of their output of frozen meat, Nelaon Brothera agreeing that during the term of three years they weald not erect, assist, or be in auy way coacerned or interested in, freezing works iv Southlaud. It- is now alleged that Nelaon Brothers, within that period, became intereeted in the Ocean Beach works. The defendants deny the allegation, and cay they only entered into an agreement with the Hon. J. G. Ward, then owner of the Ocean Beach Works, for the purchase of all sheep frozen at those works, but they had no interest or concern in the works. In giving judgment, his Honour said—" Oα the whole, I think these interrogatories should be answered. In coming to that conclusion I am very much influenced by the existence of the agreement set out in the statemeut of defence, which the defendants .-dmifc they entered into on the 6th of May, 1832, with the Hon. J. 6. Ward. Whether that agreement was or was nob a breach of the agreement which the defendants had entered into in Juue, 1891, with the plaintiffs, it is not necessary now to decide. What is very clear, however, is that the second agreement was calculated to prejudicially affect, to a considerable extent, the business, trade and profits of the present plaintiffs. It appears, therefore, th&t the defendants, by their own admission, and assuming that this second agreement was not a breach of the n'rsb, endeavoured to get round the first agreement, and to sail as close as possible to the wind, so as to avoid a breach of it. That naturally raises a suspicion that, : ,if they had dona this in the case of the agreement, they may have tried to get round their first agreement ia other ways. The only way to ascertain whether they have done so is to inquire, in as searching a way as possible, into the particulars of their financial operations. Had it not been for the agreement they have admitted I should have hesitated at the present stage to order the interrogatory eleven to be answered. Order for discovery in the ordinary form and order for interrogatories as prayed. Affidavit to be made by William Nelson and filed within four weeks." The principal interrogatories ask for explanations of investments referred to in the balance sheets of 1892, 1893, 1894. 1895, which increased from £5812 to £54,712, a statement of the terms or arrangement between the defendants and the Ocean Beach Company, and if it is true, as stated by Mr W. S. Davidson, one of the Directors of the defendants, at the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the defendants held on the sth of February, 1895, that the defendants had then lately acquired a largo interest in the said Ocean Beach freezing Works, and that this had tended to swell the item of investments in the balance sheet. -