Chase faces wait

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 23

Chase faces wait

NZPA correspondent Sydney The high-flying New Zealand property and investment company, Chase Corporation, faces a wait of up to six weeks to hear the result of the latest round of a legal battle over its name. In a case that has overtones of the bid by the upmarket English department store, Harrods, to prevent companies in New Zealand using its name, Chase has locked horns with the United States banking giant, Chase Manhattan. The New Zealand company won the first round of what could be a protracted battle, when Justice Wilcox ruled in the Federal Court last December that it had the right to use the name Chase. Chase Manhattan, dissatisfied with the ruling, appealed to the full bench of the Federal Court, and after two days of hearings this week the three judges , have reserved their decision and

will bring down.their judgment within six weeks.

Chase Manhattan, the world's sixteenth largest banking group, wants an absolute injunction against the use of the word Chase, claiming under the Trade Practices Act that the New Zealand Chase Corporation misled people by falsely representing its business was the same as the bank’s, and caused confusion in the market place.

The court was told that Chase Manhattan was named after its founder, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Chief Justice, Samuel Portland Chase, while the New Zealand firm was named after the farming company that has its origins in the early 19705.

The New Zealand group began in 1970 when a pair of Morrinsville accountants joined forces with a couple of farm consultants and bought a farm.

When looking for a name,

an accountant, Rod Spiers, who had just returned from a trip to Britain, said a wooded area was called a chase, and the name was adopted as the company name.

In the mid-19705, the company traded under the name, the Chase Holdings Group of Companies. In 1983, the company listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange and made the name Chase Corporation after taking over Fountain.

Under that name the company moved to Australia, and was given the use of office space in the Stock Exchange building in Sydney. By coincidence the Australian offices of Chase Manhattan were on the same floor, but it was not until 1985 — after the New Zealand company was grabbing headlines with its move on the giant Hooker real estate concern, and then sold out at sAust24M (SNZ3I.44M) profit — that the U.S. bank moved to challenge the name.