Tls. 300,000 Damages Claimed by Mr. G. A. Bena: A Scene in the Mixed Court The flotation of a Sino-Italidin company which ultimately came to grief was*the subject of proceedings in the Mixed Court on Wednesday afternoon, when Mr. Ferralolo (Italian Assessor) and Magistrate Loh heard an action brought by Mr. G. A. Bena to recover Tls. 300,000 damages.
The circumstances of the case as set forth in the statement of claim were that on January 8, 1921, defendants, Liu Ven-kwei and Lee On-chin, of Peking, entered into an agreement with Mr. Bena to establish a Sino-Italian company with a capital of $1,500,000, defendants engaging to take up and pay for shares to the amount of $745,000. Mr. Bena was to hand over the firm as a going concern on March 1 of that year. Ihe company was registered in the Italian Consulate at Shanghai on March 5, and plaintiff duly handed over the firm and was credited with $75,000 for the good will of his own business (which was to be absorbed in the new company). Plaintiff now alleged that defendants had neglected to fulfil their part of the agreement and, as a result, had ruined hig business and business reputation. He accordingly claimed Tls. 300,000 damages. __Dr. Fischer appeared for plaintiff, Mr. W. S. Fleming at the outset rose to submit a motion on behalf of Dr. L. Cugnio (who, later it appeared, had acted as go-between in the establishment of the company). Mr. Fleming asked for an adjournment of the hearing. Dr. Cugnio, said counsel, claimed to be a party to the contract and held that plaintiff could not bring this action without his consent. He had therefore petitioned the Italian Court for an injunction to restrain Mr: Bena from proceeding in the The application was refused.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.