SALE OF RACEHORSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23202, 28 May 1937, Page 11

SALE OF RACEHORSE

DISCOVERY OF DISABILITY RESCISSION OF CONTRACT SOUGHT (Per United Press A**.- ■•' WELLINGTON, May 27. The discovery of a disability in a three-year-old thoroughbred gelding was the subject of litigation in the Supreme Court to-day, when Walter Smart, a pawnbroker, proceeded against Arthur Edmond Preston, jun., for rescission of contract and damages.

The plaintiff in his statement of claim said he bought the gelding on the strength of representations that he had done a very good trial with Mittie over a distance of four furlongs and that it was not until after the sale that he fbund that the horse's near hip was down and that in consequence he was valueless as a racehorse.

The main ground of defence was that the horse had been sold in good faith in the belief that he was sound and that no express warranty of soundness had been given. Mr Justice Smith was on the Bench. Mr C. H. Weston, K.C., with him Mr J. H. Dunn, appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr H. F. O'Leary, K.C., with him Mr P. H. Putnam, for the defendant. An unfortunate feature of the case, Mr Weston said, was that the defendant had not made any attempt to demonstrate that the horse could gallop. " The plaintiff's allegation, in colloquial language, is that the sale was a complete ' take down,'" concluded Mr Weston.

In his cross-examination of the plaintiff, Mr O'Leary asked him if he charged the defendant with fraud. Witness said he had not done so. Mr O'Leary: You don't charge him with fraud? Witness: No.

Giving evidence for the defence. Walter Henry Hume, trainer, of Levin, said that there was no disability in the horse when he came to him or when he left him. Witness tried him out with Mittie. He denied that he had told anybody that tie gelding was as goor' as Mittie. The case was unfinished when the court adjourned.