YOUTH SUES DEALER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 74, 20 December 1937, Page 3

YOUTH SUES DEALER

Our Own Correspondent.)

Rifle Allegedly Sold with Faulty Mechanism

( From

WAIPUKUR.AU, Last Night. The quoting of passages from the Sale of Goods Act was followed by lengthy legal argument in the Waipukurau Magistrate's Court wh«n, d«fore Mr J. Miller, S.M., a I7-year-old youth, Gordon Bertram Goodeve, oi Ormondville, prosecuted againet Leonard Beachen, sports dealer of Wa^ukurau, to recover £4 15/-, the pur^ase price of a repeating rifle, the bolt of which broke three weelcs after it was purchased from the defendant. No case exactlv similar conld be found, anc! the Magistrate reserved his deeision, saying he would look into the matter on his return to Napier. The case was described as an action for damages for a breach of warrantry, by Mr D. W. Neild, who appeared for the plaintiff, whom, he said, had purchased the rifle on defendant 's recommendation. After he had used it three times the bolt snapped while he was ejecting a used cartridge. It was suggested that tho mechanism was faulty. Unsuccessful efforts wero made througli defenddnt to repair the bolt and then to obtain a new bolt. Defendant had made an offer to supply another rifle on terms that were not acceptable to plaintiff. Beachen gave evidence regarding tlie sale of the rifle, saying plaintiff had wanted ono with a puinp action. Defendant had submitled that a bolt action rifle was stronger. Efforts had been made to secure another bolt, but such a thing was not procurable in New Zealand. There was no guarantco with the rifle. Mr B. W. Johanson, for the defenee, said that the rifle was not sold on defendant ;s Tecommendation and suggeated that the case might coino under a elause covering the sale of an article under a trade name.