NO NEGLIGENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 719, 19 July 1929, Page 18

NO NEGLIGENCE

CLAIM AGAINST STOCK AGENTS FARMER’S CLAIM FAILS (From Our Own Correspondent) HAMILTON, Thursday. The case in which Vashan James Wheeler (Mr. H. T. Gillies) sued the Farmers’ Co-operative Auctioneering Company, Ltd. (Mr. W. P. Gray) for £125 damages for alleged negligence in connection with the sale of some lambs, was concluded in the Supreme Court today, before Mr. Justice Herdman. . Plaintiff was non-suited. At the close of plaintiff’s case this afternoon, Mr. Gray formally asked for a non-suit on the grounds that at the utmost an error of judgment had been proved. Mr. Gillies agreed that defendants were not liable for an error of judgment. He felt that he had failed to prove negligence, and unless he was able to satisfy his Honour on this point he agreed the case must collapse His Honour said there was no evidence of negligence. Mr. Gray said Gerrard’s evidence, had the case proceeded, would have been an emphatic contradiction that he had advised Wheeler as to the price. His Honour observed that there was no evidence of any kind that defendants acted in an improper way. There was certainly no evidence of fraud. The action, being based upon negligence, the conclusion his Honour came to after hearing Mr. Christie’s evidence, was that if ap officer of the company did err, it did not go beyond an error of judgment, even if it amounted to that. There was very strong evidence of the appearance of a mild “jump” in the market shortly afterward. The price of stock was constantly fluctuating. His Honour conceded that there was no justification for any implication of impropriety against the company. Plaintiff was non-suited with costs on the lower scale to the defendant company.