Council seeks damages

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 5

Council seeks damages

The Christchurch City Council will seek damages from the city computer firm which, it says, did not deliver software for the Canterbury Public Library computer system. The council has begun legal action against Adata Software, Ltd, after cancelling its contract with the company in January because, it said, the software did not work. Adata had the contract to supply the software for the library system. The hardware computer equipment was supplied by Data General New Zealand. The chairman of the

council’s cultural and community services committee, Cr Alister James, said yesterday that action had been started for damages against the firm.

He said he did not know if the action had also been lodged against Data General.

The Town Clerk, Mr John Gray, declined to comment at all on the legal action or on the abandoned computer system.

The council sold the major part of the equipment supplied by Data General in June, losing about $250,000 on the computer.

It had hoped that it would recoup the money it had spent on the hardware. Cr James said the action had been lodged in the High Court for damages in the form of a cash sum. The library has since contracted for Atlas software with Datacom Systems. Atlas is a specific library programme which has been used in the United States for 15 years. The Atlas software is now in use at the library. Stage one of the $1 million replacement system began working earlier this month.