Plaintiffs allege in a lengthy petition that certain acts committed by the compradore of defendant firm were such that the plaintiffs have sustained damages in the sum of $150,000 together with $2,000 a day from the closing of the New World on May 10 to the date of its re-opening.
Mr. Faison said the petition comprised three causes of action and one dealt with the entry of the parties into a compromise agreement. In the petition were included a great number of conclusions of law. In one paragraph it was stated that the plaintiff acted on the duress of threats of prolonged action, Ju the course of the proceedings Mr, K. E. Newman, one of the counsel concerned in the case, said I should like if I may, your Honour, to start by referring to the facts relating to representation of the various parties by counsel. My firm acted in conjunction with Messrs. Rodger and Haskell in January, 1920, for what was known as. the New World Company. I heard, as a member of my firm, nothing more until June of that of that year when I was informed that certain negotiations had taken place and, as a result, Messrs. Fleming, Davies and Bryan were acting for the mortgagees of the New World and ut the same time were acting for the then general manager of the New World, Loh Sih-hou. On inquiring as to who drew up the mortgage and where it was to he found T was told that Messrs. Fleming, Davies-& Bryan drew up the mortgage, acting both for Tobacco Products Corporation and Loh, the manager of the Now World.
T am not quite sure whether I wrote or whether I telephoned to Mr. Bryan or Mr. Fleming and asked for a copy of this mortgage, to see it in behalf of my clients who, I understood, were the New World. I think it was in July, 1920, that IT was given inspection of this mortgage. We then went on, Messrs. Fleming, Davies Bryan geting all the time for the Tobacco! Products Corporation on the one hand and the manager, Loh, on the other, and_ ourselves and Messrs. Rodger & Haskell acting for the shareholders and directors on the other. Negotiations proceeded like that and eventually Messrs. Rodger & Haskell and my firm filed the petitions referred to which eventually led up to the second agreement which has been designated the compromise agreement of May, 1921.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.