Mistaken identity rectified

Press, 2 January 1985, Page 14

Mistaken identity rectified

The Arbitration Court has rectified a case of mistaken identity. In a judgment on June 12, 1984, the Court awarded $2lOO against Belfast Garage, Ltd, for the unjustified dismissal of Wayne Carter. But later last year the Engineers Union found that there was no such entity as Belfast Garage, Ltd, and applied to the Court to amend the name of the defendant to Belfast Garage (1982), Ltd. At a hearing in Christchurch on October 16 last year the Court accepted that there was no such company as Belfast Garage, Ltd, and that the existing company of Belfast Garage (1982), Ltd, may never have been the owner of the business. On December 3 last year the union filed an amended

application asking the Court to amend the name of the defendant to William Henry Hunt. The Court said that it was now admitted that Mr Hunt at all times was the proprietor of the business and was the employer who dismissed Mr Carter. Mr Hunt asked that the existing judgment be set aside as a nullity and submitted that the union was free to commence fresh proceedings against him. In a reserved decision, the Court, comprising Judge N. P. Williamson, and Messrs E. W. J. Ball and T. R. Weir, said that the justice of the case required that the name of the respondent be altered to that of Mr Hunt. Although it was a highly unusual order to make, it was “just and proper” in all the circumstances.