SPENDING HUNDREDS OVER 8s 8d.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9126, 22 April 1908, Page 6

SPENDING HUNDREDS OVER 8s Bd.

A claim for Ss 8d has just been decided by the House of Lords on Appeal. The dispute was between a coal merchant and a railway company. The coal merchant entrusted an empty waggon to the railway company to be conveyed to a colliery to get loaded for a customer. The waggon took four clays in transit, and the coal merchant, to complete his contract with his customer, had to hire an emergency waggon. For this he claimed 8s 8d as;demurrage from the railway company. The latter admitted delay, and proffered 2s. The case was brought before a County Court Judge, who decided that ho had no jurisdiction, and that the question had to be referred to an arbitrator appointed by the Board of Trade. The King’s Bench and the Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the County Court Judge. The railway company carried the case to the House of Lords, who have just decided that the County Court Judge was right. The legal expenses must have run into several hundred pounds. An expensive 8s Bd, surely 1