Hotel’s owners seek damages from firm

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 7

Hotel’s owners seek damages from firm

By

BARRY CLARKE

The owners of Cokers Hotel are seeking damages from an Auckland company after the collapsed sale of the hotel. A part-owner, Mrs Marie Fisher, has instructed a lawyer to file damages in the District Court because she alleges that the buyer, Ultra Holdings Sixty Nine, has failed to come up with the money. Mrs Fisher runs the hotel with her husband, Mr Jim Fisher, a former New Zealand Rugby League representative. Ultra Holdings Sixty Nine has debts to a number of creditors through-

out the South Island. On Tuesday one of its businesses, Chambers Restaurant, in the old Christchurch Public Library building, was repossessed. Mrs Fisher would not disclose the agreed sale price of Cokers, but it is understood to be $2.2 million. Ultra Holdings Sixty Nine has also sought Ogilvie’s Hotel in the city and the Lincoln Hotel. Both sales have fallen through. A director of the company, Mrs Vai McSkimming, of Auckland, was a supervisor to the Tax Assistance Company, which was wound up last year owing 145 creditors

more than $400,000. Chambers Restaurant was repossessed by the former owner, Mr Joe McSherry, who claims Ultra Holdings Sixty Nine has not paid him any money since the sale went through last April. He has bolted the doors and is waiting for the company to call his lawyer. Mr McSherry sold the restaurant for $70,000. The restaurant is closed over the Christmas holiday period. If the company did not pay within 10 working days the restaurant was likely to be put back on the market, Mr McSherry said.