DISPUTED AGREEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16823, 13 April 1918, Page 6

DISPUTED AGREEMENT.

AN APPEAL DISMISSED.

Decision was given by Mr. Justice Cooper' lat tho Supreme Court yesterday in respect. 1? to an appeal by Thomas Runciman, of \. Ngaruawo,hia, farmer (Mr. Richmond), .! against a judgment by which Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., awarded the respondents, „' William M. Runciman, of Auckland, : 'i settler, and William T. Coad, of Welling-, / ton (Mr. Ostler), the sum of £81 3s 4d, : being 25 per cent, of royalties received by h the appellant from the" Waipa Railways r i and Collieries Company. Ltd. The amount awarded was claimed by the respondents to be payable to them by the appellant -\ under the terms of an agreement dated [J October 31, 1910, made between the appel-' 'l lant and respondents in respect of certain , coal-bearing areas situated at Te Akatoa. rear Ngaruawahia, to be leased to the Waipa Railway and Collieries Company, Ltd. The agreement purported to provide that if all the coal, or the principal output of coal, was taken or being taken from Thomas Runciman's land, William M. Runciman and William T. Coad should receive 25 per cent, of the total royalties. If, on the other hand, all the coil, or the principal part of the coal, was taken, or ■' being taken, from the respondents' land, then Thomas Runciman was to receive 25 per cent, of the total royalties. The. appeal v. as based on the ground that there was no marketable coal under respondents' land*. and therefore the agreement was void, or ought not to be ' • enforced; that the magistrate was wrong ! in deciding that there was consideration ; j proved by the respondents to entitle tbem I to judgment : that the magistrate wrongly ) admitted evidence of transactions prior to | the (late of the agreement: a.id that the j magistrate was wrong in hi application of I the law to the ff.cts given in evidence. His Honor, after reviewing some of the | preliminary matters leading up to the I agreement, agreed with the magistrate's i decision. The appeal was, therefore, (lis--1 missed.