DAMAGES AWARDED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 19 (Supplement)

DAMAGES AWARDED

BREACH OF COVENANT Bv Telegraph Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, November 27 Judgment for £250 with costs was given by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court in an action in which £5OO was claimed from Atkinson and Son, Ltd., ironfounders, on the ground that the company had committed a breach of covenant to repair under a lease. The company exercised its right of purchase under the lease, but the plaintiffs in the case, Charles Augustus Oakes and Alfred Joseph Malley, as trustees in the estate of Richard Francis Atkinson, claimed that the value of the premises as fixed by the arbitrators, was substantially reduced by the defendant’s failure to observe the covenant to repair. Evidence had been heard on two days. Giving judgment, his Honour said it was clear that the price had been abated because of the failure of defendant to comply with the covenant. Considering the nature of the building and its age, he thought that £250 would do substantial justice to the plaintiffs as representing a reasonable loss which had been suffered.