CLAIM FOR £340

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31153, 1 September 1966, Page 8

CLAIM FOR £340

Rehearing Ordered An appeal against a magistrate's dismissal of a claim for £340 by Avon Chambers, Ltd., a property company (Mr D. H. Hicks), against John Louis Anderson, a restaurant proprietor (Mr E. O. Sullivan), was upheld by Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday. The claim concerned a cheque drawn by Anderson on Avon Chambers’ account on June 14, 1956, which cheque the company claimed was unauthorised. The magistrate had dismissed the suit on the ground that it was out of time, but his Honour held that this decision was come to in error, and ordered a rehearing—“so that the merits of the claim can be fully gone into,” his Honour said. There was, prima facie, proof that the defendant Anderson had signed the cheque, said his Honour, and subsequently signed a letter, which (properly construed) amounted to an acknowledgement of a debt owing by him to Avon Chambers. This letter, his Honour held, revived the cause of action, so that Anderson’s defence under the Statute of Limitations (effective for six years in this case) must fail. Nor was Anderson entitled to a non-suit, as sought by Mr Sullivan.