LONG LAWSUIT

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1933, Page 7

LONG LAWSUIT

A HUGE CLAIM FOR £125,000.

SETTLEMENT ON 4,3 rd. DAY,

MELBOURNE, March 16

To the apparent satisfaction of all concerned the long and costly lawsuit tgaiust the Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Condensed'Milk Company (Australasia) Proprietary, Limited, has come to a Hidden end. The action, the original intricacy of which was first brought before the public «a's far hack as 1927, vva s taken against the company by Robert George Herbert Walker, and Alexander Thomas McCleave, trading together as Herbert Walker and Company Proprietary, Limited, Melbourne, for alleged breach of contract in respect of concentrated milk supplied by plaintiffs that in consequence of the inferior quality of concentrated milk supplied to them under contract by the defendant company, their business a s retailers of concentrated milk was ruined, and they claimed £125,000 damages. It was estimated in the course of the action that about 200 witnesses would be called. Up to February 28 more than half that number had given evidence. The ease was not carried on continuousy from day to day, . but was called up for hearing since November last, and the day of settlement was the 43rd. day of hearing, As in nearly all cnees of the kind, legal costs were coneidodahle. It is said that they exceed £20,000. Some days previously the presiding Judge, Mr Justice McArthur, suggested to both parties that, in order to save time and money, they should consider a settlement. After referring to the heavy costs they were accumulating, he said that very little advantage was to be gained, even by the winning side, by carrying on the action a,ii\ further. It was unlikely that a decision of his Court would end the matter.

The probability, said the Judge, was that the defeated party would desire to' go further, even to the extent of an appeal to the Privy Council. The parties would do better by attending to their •• respective - businesses instead of engaging in costly litigation in which little advantage Was likely to be gained by either. A subsequent conference failed to produce a settlement, but after several more days of bearing, another conference took place between representatives of the two parties, and on February 28, senior counsel for defendants asked the Judge- to enter judgment for the defendant company, without costs. The senior counsel for plaintiffs said he consented to that course. His Honor thereupon entered judgment for the Neslte Company, without costs. •!.. ... .■ i

When the Court adjourned felicitations were exchanged between legal representatives and others 'interested on. both sids. It was ft sudden and welcome end to one of the most protracted lawsuits of recent years. Some idea of the magnitude of the case , may be obtained from the fact that the transcript of evidence recorded by shorthand writers occupied more than 2000 foolscao pages of typewriting, containing about 923.000 words.