SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2581, 1 October 1915, Page 5

SUPREME COURT

QUESTIONS OF LAW Special questions of law—preliminary to tho civil action, Richardson, M'Cabe and Ccir,pally v.- the Wellington City Corporation—were answered in the Supreme Court yesterday in a reserved judgment delivered by HiSwHonour tho Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout). . Mr. C. P. Skerrett, K.C.,' with him Mr. T. Young, appeared for Richardson, M'Cabe and Company, while Mr. A. Gray,. ICC., with him the City Solicitor (Mr. J. O'Shea), appeared for the Corporation. , The plaintiffs were importers. They had tendered for the sale and delivery of three Tilling-Stevens motor buses to the City Corporation, at a price of .£3915, and the action had been brought to recover tho price of tho buses, or, alternatively, damages' for the non-acceptance of the buses. The present proceedings were to determine whether the. Corporation was entitled 'to repudiate the/contract. < The ground of repudiation was misrepresentation, and the defendant Corporation had counter-claimed for damages on the ground that the representations were fraudulent. The plaintiffs (Richardson, M'Cabe and Company) had tendered on Febrnary 5, 19M, for the supply and delivery of tho buses, and the tender was accepted 'by letter of the Town Clerk ~ under seal of the Corporation on April 6, 1914. The.alleged misrepresentations bad been made after, this date, and before the drawing-up of. the formal contract of June 9, 1014. The question ,to be determined was whether, oh April G, 1914, there was a concluded contract binding .both Richardson, M'Cabe. and Company and the Wellington City Corporation. His, Honour held that there had been a con tract. He at present saw nothing in the statement of facts to sho,w that the Corporation was induced to give the price agreed by the statements made by tho tenderers, and, if the repudiation was based only on a .mis-statement as to . the prices, that would not entitle tho. Corporation to.repudiate the contract.

, JUDGMMT.RESERVED.. Tli'e Supreme Court (Full Bench) reserved judgment yesterday ill the case of Bonron Bros, v., Morland. Tliig was a Christchurch case, of which' some particulars were published in yesterday's issue.