DAMAGES CLAIM FAILS

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 19 June 1931, Page 9

DAMAGES CLAIM FAILS

CONTRACT FOR MILK SUPPLY. After a hearing which occupied the whole of yesterday and continued until 10 p.m., Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., gave judgment for defendant in the Hawera Magistrate’s Court in the action in which Archibald John Haseltine, dairj farmer, of Hawera, proceeded against Frederick Ernest Starling, milk vendor, also of Hawera, claiming £3CQ by way of damages for an alleged breach of a contract concerning a milk supply. in giving his judgment the magistrate said that the arrangement between defendant and Starling was that the latter was to carry on in accordance with the arrangement previously made by plaintiff with Dornauf-. The agreement stipulated that the suppliei had to keep the milk supply clean, pure and unadulterated and c-omply with the provisions of the Dairy Act. 1908. Such an agreement was necessarily subject to the Sale of Foods and Drugs Ac-t, which was a keenly sensitive one. Starling would have been liable to a very heavy penalty if the milk had been adulterated On Octohei 7 Starling had served notice on .Hasel tine terminating the agreement. H< was clearly entitled to do so, tests o! the milk affording a real and substan tila reason. Haseltine had committee a breach of the contract in supplying milk which was not up to require) standards, and in view of the com plaints and tests made by defendani lie was entitled to terminate tin agreements. Witnesses’ expenses totalled £2 7i Gd, and £-15 solicitors’ fees were allowed.