AGREEMENT QUASHED

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 144, 15 December 1933, Page 11

AGREEMENT QUASHED

GROCERS' DISPUTE

SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT

(By Telegraph.— Press Association.) CHEISTCHUBCH, This Day. Judgment in favour of the plaintiffs in an important case concerning the grocery trade in Canterbury was given by Mr. Justice ■ Ostler in a reserved judgment. As a result of this judgment the industrial agreement between a large section of tho smaller Christchurch grocers and the Christchurch Grocers' Assistants' Union has now been quashed and declared invalid. When the case was heard last week the- larger #rms sought a writ of eertiorari, alleging that the agreement was an agreement of the assessors and not of the parties to the dispute, that the Council of Conciliation was not validly constituted in accordance with the Act, and that the industrial dispute was not properly constituted. The plaintiffs were the Self-Help Co-operative, Ltd., Star Stores, Ltd., the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association, and other firms. ' His Honour held that the Conciliation Council had not been validly constituted and that the plaintiffs, as parties to the dispute, had made it plain that they did not agree to the terms of the agreement. .