DEALINGS IN CARS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1931, Page 8

DEALINGS IN CARS

AN APPEAL CASE. •a COURT HEARS ARGUMENT. WELLINGTON, June 2(5. Argument in the case of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. the r racier Einanee Corporation was resumed he I ore the Court of Appeal. Air O’Leary, for the appellant cor[r -ratiou, submitted that tire relationship between appellant and S. Bisharrt Ltd., wits not that of principal and agent, but vendor and purchaser. Whatever might have been tire relationship between General .Motors. Ltd., and S. Diltara, Ltd., the latter company never was the agent, of tire general Motors Acceptance. Corporation. A most important question arose as to whether tile appellant could sell to the distributer of General .Motors’ products ears under the conditions of sale and mirchasc agreements. Tire answer was that .so long as those agreements complied with the provisions of section 57 r -f the Chattels Transfer Act, IR2-T. tlrev were protccctcd bv that section and the property in the ears remained in the vendor company. The protection afforded Iry the section anpEeC equally to hire purchase agreements or conditional purchase agreements entered into between manufacturers and their dealers or distributors, as it did to similar agreement's between those dealers and members of the purchasing public. The Chief Justice here asked Mr O’Leary Whether he was not asking tli Court to. increase the possibilty of fraud and not decrease it. The sectsoi was in.ended to remedy mischief, but Mr O’Leary’s interpretation would extend that mischief and make it unsah for any person to buy a car trom -a dealer. Mr O’ 17 ary Kiilin itied that so long as the vendor under a conditional purcb:i:e agreement was the dealer or ownner of the arti' le sold it did n t mat in the least, acoor ing !o the constru lion of tlie section, who the purchaser wa s. Mr Grant, for the respondent, submitted iliat General Motors Acceptance Comoro‘ ion was not a mercantile institution but was a banking corporation, inc rporated under the bank ing laws of lire State of New Vork. N'orrntidti'Mis between General Motor Aeeeptanee Coriroration and-their various motor-ear dealers tliromdiont the Dominion were not genuine eonditiona.l redes e-f r-rs, Imt const,itimd a system of financing sales bv dealers who rro their u'fonts for the nurose o' s-h* Bishar< Brothers in this c-so d : ' 1 net n''ceb:>se ■ 1 ears but wei"* mere I '' a-'outs for (be iur-oose ofs'do I lie sale'•e’n" financed by the annellent. A( this stage the Court adjourno- 1 urtd Mmulny morning.