COMPANIES TAKE DISPUTE TO COURT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 150, 15 September 1927, Page 11

COMPANIES TAKE DISPUTE TO COURT

QUESTION OF AN AGREEMENT YX/'HETHER or not there was a ** concluded agreement between two companies was the main point at issue in an action brought before Mr. Justice Stringer in the Supreme Court this^morning.

The Kamo Collieries, Ltd., of Hikurangi (Mr. Trimmer and Mr. Turner) claimed for a declaration of a partnership and an injunction restraining the Kamo Potteries, Ltd., Whangarei (Mr. Richmond) from further working the coal deposits on its property. Mr. Trimmer explained that the defendant company owned two lots of property, 50 and 12 acres respectively, which it leased to the plaintiff company. Both companies entered into different contracts for the working of the properties and finally an agreement of partnership was drawn up. The plaintiff now claimed that the agreement was entered into in February, 1927, fo.r the working in partnership of the coal deposits on the properties controlled by the respective companies. No formal agreement was made, but a draft agreement was initialled by directors of both concerns. The plaintiff contended that this constituted an enforcible agreement and that work was actually commenced on the properties in pursuance of the agreement. The defendant’s contention was that the initialled draft contained only certain points which had been agreed upon and which left other points undecided. There was, in the defendant’s opinion no concluded agreement. The amount of coal to be reserved on the defendant’s property for its own use was one of the principal points. The defendant company claimed that the work done on the property was merely done under a tentative arrangement in expectation that a final agreement would be drawn up. After two months, however, it was found impossible to settle the question. The defendant company then stopped all work and cancelled the negotiations. The questions are now being argued..