Supreme Court CLAIMS FOR $200,000

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 9

Supreme Court CLAIMS FOR $200,000

Third day of hearing

The hearing of claims for more than $200,000 by subcontractors for work done on the Bank of New Zealand building in Cathedral Square, will enter its fourth day before Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court today.

Sixteen sub-contractors are claiming various sums from the Bank of New Zealand Officers’ Provident Association, the first defendant, the Bank of New Zealand, the second defendant, and P. Graham and Son, Ltd, in liquidation, the third defendant.

I Messrs R. B. Cooke, Q.C., land J. R. Woodward appear for the defendants.

Counsel for the plaintiffs are Messrs P. T. Mahon, Q.C., J. F. Bum, B. McClelland, J. G. Leggat, D. M. Palmer, R. J. Aldous, and M. F. Smith. Because of a claim by the defence that some of the claims are out of time, the defence case is being presented first. When the Court rose yesterday the second witness for the defence and in the hearing, Morris James Graham, a company director, who was governing director of P. Graham and Son, Ltd, was still being crossexamined by counsel for the plaintiffs. Mr Graham entered the witness-box at 3.50 p.m. on Tuesday. The first witness for the defence was Robert Glasgow Freeman, a partner in charge of the firm of Stephenson and Turner, architects practising in New Zealand and Australia, who were the architects for the Bank of New Zealand building.