LEASE CANCELLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 796, 17 October 1929, Page 10

LEASE CANCELLED

MISREPRESENTATION CLAIM SUCCEEDS EPSOM BAKERY BUSINESS Tlie opinion that Thomas Alfred Leonard Mitchell had dishonest intentions in withholding certain information concerning an Kpsom bakery business, which he leased to Peter Elder Ramsay, was expressed by Mr. Justice Smith, in the Supreme Court today, in giving judgment for Ramsay on a claim for fraudulent misrepresentation. Ramsay claimed £l5O general and £ 6 special damages besides the cancellation of the lease he had taken ot the premises. Mitchell counterclaimed for £577 damages for loss of rent and £32 for arrears of rent. The judge held that the statement made by Mitchell iu a letter to Ramsay. suggesting the bakery business was the best proposition in Auckland, was in the nature of an “introductory pufif.” The statement was so extravagant that no action for fraudulent misrepresentation on that ground could succeed. No dishonest intentions could be imputed to Mitchell either, in regard to his statement concerning the site of the shop, in relation to the successful operations of other businesses in the same block. The fraudulent misrepresentations were that Mitchell had suppressed information that a person named Bear had occupied the shop, that another tenant, Taylor, had had his rent reduced and that the reason for Taylor's inability to make the business pay was that he had paid too much for the premises. What was slated became materially untrue, and his Honour held that defendant had intended plaintiff to act on this information. • The judge cancelled the lease, but held that plaintiff was not entitled to more than £6 damages. Judgment was also entered for plaintiff on the counter-claim, with costs.