SALE OF AN HOTEL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19063, 27 July 1927, Page 7

SALE OF AN HOTEL.

—— ♦- CLAIM UNDER AN INDEMNITY. An action was heard, before Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., yesterday, in which George M. Julius, of Christchurch, salesman (Mr Widdowson), proceeded against A. P. Pratt, of Papanui, hotelkeeper (Mr Murphy). The statement of claim set out that in February, 1927, E. M. McKenna, a land agent, sued plaintiff, in the Magistrate's Court for £IOO, being one half of £2OO alleged to have been received by plaintiff as commission in connexion with the sale.by H. Hancock, to defendant, of the Phoenix Hotel, at Papanui, under an agreement to share commission equally between them, and in the month of April, 1927, E. M. McKenna obtained judgment for £IOB 10s, which piointiff had to pay. Plaintiff contended that by an agreement dated August, 1926, the defendant Pratt, in consideration of the-sum of £SO paid him by plaintiff, agreed to indemnify plaintiff against all actions, claims and demands that either Hancock or McKenna might have against plaintiff in respect of the sale of the hotel. Plaintiff therefore claimed from defendant the sum of £IOB 10s under virtue of the agreement for mdemThe defence was that plaintiff had not earned a commission, and there was no consideration for the agreement to indemnify. The Magistrate gave judgment tor defendant, with costs. "If another Court likes to take a legal view of the matter, then I must bow before its decision, but I am not going to do it in this Court," said the Magistrate, who added that he could not give credence to much of plaintiff's evidence. ~ Security for appeal was fixed on JU.r Widdowson's application.