SETTLEMENT ARRANGED

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 11

SETTLEMENT ARRANGED

• When the .Court resumed to-day, Mr. H. F. O'Leary, counsel for the defendant company, said that Mr. Forman, managing director, was) satisfied, after hearing the evidence of the .plaintiff, much of which was new to him, that the plaintiff [had a justifiable claim. Therefore, General Motors was not only willing but anxious that the claim should be met. It was a' matter of regret to Mr. Forman, said counsel, that the plaintiff had not seen fit to communicate with him before launching the action. If ho had done so the litigation would have been avoided. Mr. F. C. Spratt, counsel for the plaintiff, expressed appreciation of the defendant company's attitude. In explanation of the. plaintiff's action, counsel said that Mr; Walkley felt until yesterday that he had been treated in a highhanded way. He had entered into moral obligations which might easily have ripened into legal obligations. He considered that he had been put into a false position, and that the only way to clear up the matter was to go ahead without preliminary negotiations; _ His Honour the Chief Justice (oir Michael Myers) said that be was very glad to hear of the settlement, not merely because it relieved him of the necessity of continuing the trial, which was, after all, part, of his duties,-but because it was refreshing to note that a concern of the defendant company's standing sawthat it had conducted a defence to an action under a misapprehension, and that the plaintiff was. morally entitled to relief. He himself had no doubt that the company's attitude at the time of the break in the relations of the parties was caused to a certain extent by anger on the part of Mr. Forman, not without justification, because one of the_ statements in the memorandum issued m connection' with the formation of the _ company was an unfortunate one to insert without prior reference to Mr. Forman. But, of course, that did not justify breacla of contract: v . . .„. Judgment was entered for the plamtitt for £557 18s*.