SUPREME COURT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 305, 9 December 1931, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

DAIRY COMPANY’S ACTION. AGAINST FORMER SUPPLIER. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Dec. 9. An action has been begun in the Supreme Court by the Oruru branch of the Fairburn Co-operative Dairy Co. of North Auckland to recover from John William Dawson, formerly a supplier, the sum of £24 3/8, representing «84d. in the pound on all butterfat he produced in the 1929-30 season. It was stated that defendant ceased to supply to the company after May, 1930. For the 1929-30 season he had been paid in monthly advances a total of £4OB. At the end of the season the company found that it had advanced £2492 more than it had obtained by sales after payment of working expenses. Dawson in April, 1931, refused to refund the amount of the over-advance. An action was brought in the Magistrate’s Court but because a number of other suppliers were in the same position and the company desired an authoritative judgment, it was removed to the Supreme Court. The secretary of the company said that sut fliers were not notified till last April of the necessity for a refund, but many had expected it. The chairman of directors said that when t' market slumped, 40 per cent, of the output was withheld from sale. The company had acted similarly in the two previous years, with the result that suppliers had gained £3OOO. The suppliers had met and had decided to leave the marketing policy in the hands of the directors.