MOWER CLAIM IN 41st DAY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28888, 7 May 1959, Page 7

MOWER CLAIM IN 41st DAY

Case Expected To Set Record

When Mr Justice Adams resumes the hearing of the civil claim over the Pyramid hydraulic mower in the Supreme Court this morning, it is believed that a new record for the length of a legal case in New Zealand will be set.

Today will be the forty-first day of the hearing, which began on March 2.

It is believed that the previous longest case in New Zealand’s legal history was an action Wills v. Isaac, which was heard in Dunedin sometime in the 1870’s. This case is thought to have lasted either 39 or 40 days. The “mower case,” as it has become familiarly known to Court officials and counsel engaged at its hearing, is expected to continue for another three to four weeks at the least.

Already, almost 1100 pages of evidence have been typed by Mr Justice Adam’s associate (Miss T. R. Feeney)—to be exact, 1099 when the hearing was adjourned to this morning at 4.30 p.m. yesterday With the first witness for the defendant still in the box after eight days, the evidence may well run to more than 2000 pages. A substantial sum is involved in the claim—again, thought to be one of the largest amounts of money ever claimed and counterclaimed for a civil action in New Zealand. Pyramid Machines, Ltd., is claiming £55,623 damages from W. H. Price and Son, Ltd., alleging breach of contract in the development, manufacture, and delivery of the Pyramid mower. Price and Son. Ltd., is counter-claiming for £33,227 or, alternatively. £49.827.

The plaintiff's original claim was for £59,000.

Mr R. W. Edgley, with him Mr J. B. Weir, is appearing for the plaintiff company, and Mr R. A. Young, with him Mr R. B. Shand, for the defendant company.