In answer to Mr. Bryant, witness admitted that plaintiffs were net advised by letter that the contract had been cancelled. A verbal communication was made.
When the hearing was resumed in the afternoon, Mr. Humphreys explained that plaintiff had no money to pay his Shantung dealers for the coal. and witness had to meet the dealers' demands.
His Lordship:—It is unfortunate that you did not make these payments in the presence of plaintiffs.
Mr. Bryant:—I suggest that the reason plaintiffs could not pay their dealers was because you did not pay them "on completion of loading" as the contract requires. Why did you not tell them that the accounts had been settled?
Witness:—Why should I?
Mr. Bryant:—You did not consider yourself under any obligation to tell them?
Wilness:—I did. not recognize plaintiffs as the deliverers of the coal.
In reply to his Lordship, witness said the amounts paid by his firm to plaintiff's coal merchants were: $10,826, $19,000 and $17,000.
His Tordship:—The position seems unfortunately to have~ been that neither defendants nor plaintiffs' own dealers would trust the plaintiffs.
Oliver Sung, re-called, said he had never agreed to cancellation of the contract, and had never heard of its having been cancelled.
His Lordship:—Why did you not pay your dealers?
Witness:—Because we had no money.
His Lordship:—The fact is, you entered into a contract involving close on $50,000 and you had no money to finance it.
In addressing his Lordship for the defence, Mr. Goldring said that when it became absolutely certain that plaintiffs would neither be able to deliver the coal according to contract quality and in contract time, defendants were justified in calling the contract off and going to the people who had the coal and fixing up with them.
Judgement was reserved.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.