SALE OF SALTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22368, 15 September 1934, Page 14

SALE OF SALTS

COURT ACTION JUDGMENT

NOMINAL DAMAGES ONLY,

Reserved judgment in the recent Supreme Court action in which the owners of Kvuscben Salta, B. Griffiths Hughes, Ltd., of Manchester, England (Messrs Richmond and Weir) sought an injunction ami claimed £SOO damages and costs against the Allen Saline Company (N.Z.), Ltd., an Auckland firm winch manufactures a saline known as Rhusal Salts (Mr Barrowclough), was given by Mr Justice Hevdman in the Supreme Court at Auckland on Wednesday mornlnHis Honor dealt at length with the marketing methods employed by both companies. The plaintiff company, he said, alleged that, being the manufacturer of a saline product which for many years had been sold in New Zealand in a particular way, it had been injured by defendant company because the latter had intentionally done something which would puss oil its saline mixture as and for the saline mixture of the plaintiff. “ I am not aware ot any legal bar which prevents defendant from selling a saline preparation composed of the ingredients mentioned on the carton to which exception is taken,” said his Honor “Tile same ingredients may be used by plaintiff and defendant, but it docs not follow that the formulae are the same. No charge can he preferred against defendant for selling Rhushl baits manufactured from the same substances as those used in tho manufacture of Kruschen Salts. In what quantity the different ingredients are used is a matter known to the manufacturers only and not to tlie public. All that is known is that the saline preparations are similar. Defendant is obliged to abstain from producin" by any act of his such contusion in the minds of probable purchasers as would be likely to lead to his goods being bought and sold for the plaintiff s. . In giving judgment, his Honor said that in so far as the action related to the sale of Rhusal in the red band carton the plaintiff company was not entitled to succeed, but proof had been given that from the date of the incorporation of the defendants company on January 26, 1633, to February 8, 1033, Rhusal Salts in the “P. 3” carton had been sold by defendant company. ihe plaintiff company under that head was entitled to damages, but inasmuch as any loss sustained must have been negligible, nominal damages only would be awarded. As he was to hear counsel further on the subject of costs he would postpone fixing the extent of damages.