VEND CASE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 72, 21 September 1912, Page 5

VEND CASE

HIGH COURT UPHOLDS APPEAL UNANIMOUS DECISION. By Telegraph.- Prw» Association.— Copyright. SYDNEY, 20th September. , The High Court of Australia delivered its decision to-day in the appeal lodged by some of the shipping defen dants in the Coal Vend case. The judgment appealed against, one by Mr. Justice Isaacs, occupied a whole volume of the bulky transcript in the case. The case largely turned upon the meaning legally attachable to" the word "monopoly" appearing in the Australian Industries' Preservation Act, popularly known as the Anti-Trust Act, and upon the legality, or otherwise, of the vend agreement amongst colliery proprietors for a minimum selling price. The Court upheld the appeal x thus upsetting th» conviction recorded by Mr. Justice Isaacs. Altogether there were sixteen grounds of appeal, the chief being that upon the whole evidence the appellants were entitled to judgment on all matters alleged against them j that the judgment of Mr. Justice Isaacs was erroneous botb as regards conclusions of fact and the law as applicable to those facts; and that the evidence was wrongly admitted. The Chief Justice, Sir Samual Griffith, in concluding' the reading of a lengthy judgment, said the Court was bound to decide the case on the evidence. Upon that evidenoe the Bench was of opinion that the Crown had failed to provg intent on the part of the appellants to cause any detriment to_ the public interest. It was also of opinion that the Crown had failed to prove that any actual detriment had accrued to any public. Mr. Justice Barton and Mr._ Justice O'Connor, concurred in the decision, and judgment was entered up for appellants with the original costs and the costs of the appeal. [There were 40 defendants in thu Vend case, the number comprising both colliery and shipping companies. The penalties imposed aggregate £19,500, and the law costs, which the defendants were Ordered to pay, were estimated at over £30,000. The companies were charged with having formed a trust in contravention to the law. Mr. Justice Isaac wa9 of opinion the full amount of the penalty was not too much for the least of the offences proved, and, accordingly, he imposed a fine of £503 on each and every defendant proceeded against, except the defendant called the Associated Northern Collieries. He excepted this defendant because, though in a sense it was a separate organisation and had appeared as such, yet in effect all its members were fined to the statutory limit, and it would be unfair, and a virtual excess of Parliament's intention, to fine them again indirectly through the association. The hearing of the appeal was begun on 26th August. The appellants were the Adelaide Steamship Company, Ltd., Howard Smith Company, Ltd., Huddart, Parker, and Co., Proprietary, Ltd., M'lllwraith, M'Eacharn,, and Co.^ Proprietary, Ltd., and the companies' officers : Edward Northcote, William Thomas Appleton, David Hunter, and Charles Morton Newman.] PRESS COMMENTS. "A LUMINOUS JUDGMENT." (Received September 21, 9.40 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Commenting on the Coal Vend judgment, the Daily Telegraph says:— "So far as an unbiased lay mind can see daylight through a thicket of legal technicalities, in which the facts are obscured, the Vend decision will have the endorsement of the country's com-mon-sense^" The Herald says : — "A luminous judgment draws what most will comment as the proper distinction between lawful combinations and combinations to the detriment of the public. The whole case turned on tha word 'detriment.' The judgment indicates that defendants 4 in taking the steps they did for the preservation of trade and the maintenance of the wages of tneir employees, did nothing unlawful ; that, on the contrary, they conserved the interests of the workmen and themselves."