OPOSSUM SKINS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 140, 11 December 1923, Page 4

OPOSSUM SKINS

CLAIMS FOR BREA.CH OF CONTRACT FAIL.

Reserved decision has been given by Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M., at the Magistrate s Court, in the civil case in which two farmers, J. r. Clifton and H. H. Meyer, proceeded against H. L. Churchward and Co., brokers and wool and skin merchants, for the recovery of £117 & 9d alleged to be the balance due for the sale of a quantity of opossum skins. Defendant counter-claimed for £30, maintaining that the contract between parties was based on a representation that no small or damaged skins should be supplied. Plaintiffs, it was alleged, supplied great quantities of both small and damaged skins, which were rejected, and the counter-claim wa.s for an amount by way of refund

Early in the hearing of the case, Mr. y- G. G. Watson, counsel for the defendant, objected to the separate actions of the plaintiffs, and said that the agreement between the parties was a joint contract. The Court upheld this contention, and the proceedings were therefore amended \to a joint ■ claim by the plaintiffs to £2CO

"In think," said the Magistrate, "that the contract between the parties waß a Bale.by sample of plaintiffs' output of opossum skins for the 1923 season, and that the skins when delivered- did not correspond with the sample inspected by defendants, who were, therefore, entitled to reject the goods when they were found to contain such a proportion oi small and, dsimaged skins as to constitute a failure of performance on the part of the plaintiffs. Nor do I think '♦that any property in the skins inspected by the defendants passed to them on payment of the £30 after the agreement was signed." Judgment was entered for the defendants, with costs amounting to £14 6s, and judgment v was also given for the defendant on each of the counter-claims for £15, with £2 -4s solicitor's fee in each case.

At the hearing, Mr, D. Jackson. aC' peared for the plaintiffs, and Mr. G G. G. Watson for the defendants