Caterers ordered to pay up

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 396, 23 July 1991, Page 5

Caterers ordered to pay up

A case which should never have come before the court was heard during civil proceedings in the Ohakune District Court last Thursday. This was the opinion of Judge Bathgate who said the plaintiffs case was so overwhelming and incontrovertible that he was, like the plaintiff, surprised the defendant had considered a defence would be even remotely successful. The case, which took three and a half hours, concerned a sum of $8,900 claimed by the plaintiffs, Aran Shivnan and Helen Aitken trading as Nobbys Restaurant, from the defendant Spotless Catering (NZ) Ltd, during the 1990 ski season. This sum of money was claimed for food supplied by Nobby's Restaurant to Spotless Catering for their Turoa Skifield restaurant operation. In his summing up Judge Bathgate, after hearing evidence from 4 witnesses for the plain-

tiff and ohe for the defendant, said while the contract to supply food was largely verbal and informal between the two parties, it was a contract and, on the evidence before him, the food had been supplied. The plaintiffs had only a few months earlier taken over Nobbys Restaurant from the previous owner who had supplied food to Spotless Catering during the 1989 ski season under what they, the plaintiffs, understood to be a similar informal arrangement. They could see no reason why an arrangement which had worked the previous year should not do so again during the 1990 ski season. Continuing his summing up Judge Bathgate said that the arrangement involved a contract to supply freshly prepared food to Spotless Catering on a day to day basis as required. Because of the vagaries of the weather this

meant there were some days when no food was supplied but, at other times, it necessitated Nobby's staff starting work at midnight to ensure that the food would be ready to be taken up the mountain when the skifield opened. At first, in the early part of the season, each batch of food ordered and supplied to the Spotless Catering depot in Thames Street, Ohakune, would be accompanied by documentation, usually an invoice from Nobbys but this practice was discontinued when it was found these documents were left lying on the floor of the depot and not filed or attended to in a systematic business-like way. However a complete record of all orders and food supplied was kept on a wall chart at Nobbys and instead of sending out an invoice or advice note with each delivery, Nobbys adopted the practice of billing Spotless Catering

monthly from the beginning of August. According to records kept by Nobbys Restaurant (and confirmed by their 4 witnesses) they continued to supply Spotless Catering with food for their skifield operation until the end of the 1990 ski season, including the well patronized August school holidays. The case for the defence as presented in Court last Thursday was that no food was supplied after 4 August 1990. When this claim was refuted and proved untenable after evidence from witnesses - including a subponaed employee of Spotless Catering the defence then raised the question of quantity and quality. Judge Bathgate said that while he found the testimony of the plaintiffs 4 witnesses who gave evidence (10 witnesses were available) reliable and unrehearsed with just slight inconsistencies the evidence presented by

the defendant was unreliable and beyond credibility. He particularly commended the testimony of Aran Shivnan when he appeared in the witness box for the plaintiff. He found the case against Spotless Catering (NZ) Ltd proven and awarded the plaintiffs court costs, witness expenses (one had to come from Queenstown) and legal fees in addition to the $8900 claimed. The plaintiffs were also awarded 11% interest on the money they had to borrow to keep Spotless Catering supplied with food. Judge Bathgate said this was the maximum interest allowed under the District Court Act but "I would have awarded them 100% had I been permitted to do so. Mr Brian Mason of Ohakune appeared for the plaintiffs.