AERATED WATER BOTTLES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2340, 23 December 1914, Page 6

AERATED WATER BOTTLES

« TO WHOM DO THEY BELONG P (By Telegraph.—Presu Association.) Dunedln, December 22. A civil case embracing a principle of Importance to aerated water manufacturers was decided by Mr. Widdowson,. S.M., this morning, in his judgment in the action Lane, Ltd., v. W. Gittens, a bottle gatherer, in which plaintiff sued for possession of eighty dozen aerated wat-or bottles detained since November and collected at Tahuna Park camp. The principle involved was whether there aro sales of such, bottles with their contents. The Magistrate said that with the delivery tickets storekeepers received a circular stating that aerated waters would be charged for at the rate of 2s. Gd. a dozen, and an allowance of Is. a dozen would be made for empties returned. Plaintiffs also had invoices containing a memo.: "Bottles in this invoice are. not sold, although a deposit may . have been taken," but this invoice was only delivered to merchants, and was 'sent monthly to storekeepers, and not at all to those paying cash, so. the circular could not be invoked to supplement the contract. Moreover tho circulars sent, to different customers were different, and while it was clear that cne to hotelkeepers did not give them possession of the property, the circular to storekeepers contained no referonce to a deposit, and that tho words in the circular given abovo showed that tho bottles wero purchased with tho contents. Judgment was given for defendant.