CLAIM FOR BOAT ENGINES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21086, 21 January 1932, Page 12

CLAIM FOR BOAT ENGINES.

RETENTION IN AUCKLAND. JUDGMENT FOR SYDNEY FIRM. Judgment in the claim by Vincent Brothers, of Sydney, against C. J. Collings, of Auckland, trading as Collings and 8011, for the possession of two boat engines, or for their value of £63 18s 2d, was given by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Mr. Hunt said there had been no dispute about the facts. The engines were consigned to Colonial Distributors, Limited, by the plaintiffs for the purpose of sale and the company instructed the defendants to build boats suitable for the engines. The boats, in which the engines were to be installed by the defendants, were to be completed by October 31, 1931, but, before the contract was completed, Colonial Distributors, Limited, went into liquidation. The defendants had refused to return the engines or to pay for them, claiming a lien on them for work done. Their counsel had contended that Colonial Distributors, Limited, was a mercantile agent and had power to pledge the engines and to dispose of them under a contract by which a lien might arise. "There is no evidence that anything whatever was done to the engines which would create a lien," said Mr. Hunt. "Tho property in the engines has never passed from the plaintiffs, and I am of opinion that Colonial Distributors, Limited, was not acting in the ordinary course of business of a mercantile agent in ordering boats to be built for the engines. There is a difference between a pledge and a lien. In one case, the property passes; in the other, it does not." The magistrate gave judgment for the return of the engines or their value in the amount claimed in case possession could not be given. Costs would be against the defendants.