SUPREME COURT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18573, 27 November 1920, Page 11

SUPREME COURT.

CIVIL SITTING. The civil sittings of the Supreme Court were continued before his Honor Mr Justice Herdman yesterday. MARKETING a PATENT. A case brought by .Tameß Carlisle Whiteman, Christchurch, against Ernest Robert Godward, engineer, Christchurch, had been partly heard the previous day and adjourned till _ yesterday. Tho claim was for an order instructing defendant to transfer to plaintiff 2300 shares in the Eclipse Petrol Economiser System Company, and £250 damages for failing to transfer the shares m August last, or £llsO damages. Th« defence was that contracts by defendant to sell shares to plaintiff were conditional, and that the conditions had not been complied with. Mr M. JGresson appeared for plaintiff and Mr O. T. J. Alpers for defendant. When the case was called on again Mr Gresson stated that it had Been settled out of Court, and it was struck out. QUESTION OF DAMAGES. The assessment of damages in a caso decided by the Court of Appeal was argued before his Honor- The case was heard originally in the Supreme Court, Christchurch, on October 30, 1919, when Henry James Knight, farmer, Christchurch, and John M’Lennan, farmer, Methven, sued the National Mortgage and Agency Company and William Ashton, farmer, Ashburton, for tli© sum of £357, for damages done by defendants’ sheep to cocksfoot along roads controlled by tho Mount Hutt Road Board, plaintiffs having been 1 given the rights to the cocksfoot, there in respect‘to the 1919 crop'. The damage was done by sheep being driven along the roads. His Honor had held that the contract under which plaintiff's bought the rights was ultra vires, and gave judgment for defendants with costs. The Court of Appeal, finding that plaintiffs had a claim at law,, allowed plaintiffs’ appeal against his Honor’s decision. The assessment of damages was left to the Supreme Court. Mr J. H. Upham appeared for plaintiffs, Mr M. J. Gresson for Ashton, and Mr F. S. Wijding for the company. His Honor gave judgment for plaintiffs for £175, with costs as per scale.