MEAT COOLER IS SUBJECT OF CLAIM

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 63, 16 March 1931, Page 7

MEAT COOLER IS SUBJECT OF CLAIM

FAULTY WORKMANSHIP ALLEGED BY BUTCHER.

The reconditioning of a meat cooler in a city butcher’s shop was the subject of a claim for damages heard before Mr Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court to-day. Frederick Webb, of 698, Armagh Street, butcher (Mr M. J. Gresson), claimed from J. J. Niven and Co., Ltd., engineers (Mr W. J. Sim) £175 damages. Edward Batelle Harris, builder (Mr M. J. Burns) was joined as a third party on the ground that the' contract was performed by him under a sub-contract to do the work required, and defendant company claimed that it was entitled to be indemnified by Harris for any damages which might be found due by it to the plaintiff. According to the statement of claim, the defendant company, in the year 1928, undertook the work of enlarging and reconditioning the plaintiff’s meat cooler at a cost of £205. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care and skill in executing the contract by using ground pumice and not insulating pumice, by using pumice that was damp instead of being kiln dried, by using sappy 0.8. red pine timber, by failing to make proper provision to take the water away from the coils, and by not packing the pipes properly at the points and where they passed through the walls of the cooler. It was further alleged that as a result the cooler would not maintain a temperature of less than 42 deg. Fahreneit and the woodwork completely rotted away. The plaintiff claimed £175, the costs of the action, and such further relief as the Court saw fit to give. Statement of Defence. The statement of defence denied the several allegations in the statement of claim and stated that if it were proved that the defendant company failed to exercise reasonable care and skill then the consequences set out in the statement of claim were not the result of" that failure but were due to inherent defects in the plaintiff’s meat cooler itself by reason of its construction and the appliances used with it. (Proceeding.)