CLAIM TO DREDGE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 21

CLAIM TO DREDGE

Judgment Given

The $93,000 suction dredge Kopunawai belonged to the contracting firm of Owers Bros, Ltd, when it was seized by the bailiff of the Magistrates Court in October, 1968, and not to Paintin and Nottingham, Ltd, the engineering firm which built it, Mr Justice Wilson ruled in a reserved decision given in the Supreme Court His Honour gave this judgment on an action, heard on various dates in April, May, and June last, in which the ownership of the dredge was in dispute. Evidence was given during the hearings that the dredge had been seized in execution of a distress warrant applied for by Miller, Gale, and Winter, public accountants (Mr J. N. Matson), after obtaining judgment for $1456 against Owers Bros, Ltd, as professional fees owing. Miller, Gale, and Winter claimed the dredge to be the property of Owers Bros, Ltd (now in receivership), for which firm the dredge was originally built under contract between 1963 and 1965. Paintin and Nottingham, Ltd (Mr C. B. Atkinson), claimed the dredge as its property, saying that actual ownership had never passed to Owers Bros, Ltd. His Honour held that at the time the dredge was seized, and at ail other material times since April 2, 1965, It was the property of Owers Bros, Ltd.