DAMAGES CLAIMED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 7

DAMAGES CLAIMED

ALLEGED BREACH OF LAMPSHADE CONTRACT ASSIGNED WITH BUSINESS A £5,000 contract entered into by a "Wellington firm to purchase silk lamp-shades from the Auckland Manufacturers was the basis of a claim for £1,156 damages heard by Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court yesterday. The action was brought by Ernest A. Little, proprietor of the Auckland Lamp-shade Company, and E. Tolley, of Melbourne, against A. Beal Pritchett (N.Z.). Ltd., in liquidation. The contract was entered into by Beal. Pritchett, Ltd., in February, 1927, the firm undertaking to purchase £5,000 worth of silk lampshades in 12 months. It was alleged that as a result of the defendant firm’s failure to take the monthly quota of shades, plaintiffs had been involved in a loss of £1,186. The business in Auckland formerly belonged to Tolley, who disposed of it to Little together with existing contracts in August, 1927. Mr. Leary, for the plaintiffs, said the principal issue was the validity of the assignment of the contract. It was agreed that if the plaintiffs were entitled to prove as creditors the amount to which they were entitled could be settled by arbitration. Evidence was given by Reginald S. Little, a son of the plaintiff, who said a large sum -was paid for the contracts when liis father bought Tolley's business. As a result of defendant’s failure to take its quota of shades, witness said that his firm was unablo to absorb the whole of the materials imported to fulfil the work. For the defence Mr. Spratt argued that the contract could not be assigned with the business, as it was a personal contract. He refuted the suggestion that the defendant firm had been advised of the change of ownership of the Auckland firm. Kenneth A. Macdonald, managing director of defendant firm, said that after the contract to take £5,000 worth of lamp-shades was entered into with Tolley’s, business languished and he then realised that the order placed was too big. The plaintiff Little had never advised witness that he had acquired the Auckland business from the Tolleys.