Claim for $50,000 Damages M. Supreme Court on Tuesday (May 22), before Judge Mossop, the hearing was commenced of action for breach of Warranty and late delivery, in' connection with a large quantity of soda ash and sulphide of soda, was brought by Vu Ling-wu et ai, (trading as the China Soda Consumers Society) and Centrosojus (England) Limited.
Mr. K. E, Newman represented the plaintiffs, while Mr. J, E. Badeley with Dr, F, Wilhelm appeared on Behalf of the defendants.
The plaintiffs claim damages of over $50,000, alleging that they have Suffered loss to this amount by rea~ son of the defendant's alleged neggence in packing the soda ash in defective bags; by supplying @ large quantity of the material in what they allege was a dirty and unsalefable condition, mixed with "sweep-ngs," and. they further allege that fan excessive amount of moisture was found, on analysis, to be con tained in the soda a "They also Glaim. in respect of late delivery of certain quantity of sulphide of Soda, ordered by them from the de~ fendants, as a consequence of which, When the goods did finally arrive, the market had gone against the complainants, and the goods de-fivered had, they contend, to be sold tata heavy' loss.
'The defence Is a general denial of the "plaintiffs contentions, and a pleading that, if any damage for Tate delivery, as alleged, did take place, the plaintiffs are estopped from' now setting up such claim by Feason of the fact that the plainttts ecepted, without demur, the cargo when it did arrive.
Mr, Newman, in opening for the plaintiff, explained in detail is} Client's claim, and occupied the rest fof the day in. reading voluminous correspondence, and various documents, and had not finished doing} when the case was adjourned Until "next" morning, Wednesday, When the major part of the " day was taken up by the further reading of considerable correspondence, and other documents, by Mr. Newman, only one witness, on behalf of the plaintiffs, being partially heard.
Boris Sergueviteh Ivanov, examin ed by Mr. Newman, stated that he Was the secretary to the plaintiff society, and explained in detail the manner in which the business tr fe tions. between the plaintifis and the defendants were conducted, and mentioned that amongst his duties was that of translator of all the cor Fespondence between the parties from the Russian into the English Innguage, According to this wit ness's evidence, the plaintiff society Was established in 1931 for the purpose of taking over the sole selling Tights sri China of all chemical pro-duets manufactured by the USSR. through the defendants in Shanghai Of the various persons with whom the plaintifis conducted business, amounting. in all to seven, only Mr. Morrison was" at present in Shanghai, "and the business of the Cenirosojus 1s being run at the moment by the manager, Mr. Gourba off, Witness described the arrival fof the first shipment of soda ash at the Robert Dollar wharf in Shongval, and stated that he drow the attention of the assistant manager, Mr. I, N, Bablitch, representing the defendants at the wharf when the ship discharged, to the bad state of the containing' bags, and expressed his opinion that it was very old cargo, Dut was te-assured by Mr. Babiteh who stated that "it is fresh cargo, just arrived from Japan".
Mr. Newman: What is sodium ear~ used for in Shanghai?.
substance is usually known as soda ash, and is used in a good many industries, the most important being bleaching' in dyeing factories Tt is known as "bleaching powder", and ig used to make the colouring of cloth even, It is also used in lass manufacture, and is known as rystat" or "stone soda" when used for baking purposes, or for washing, for cleaning purposes.
His lordship: "It is also used for indigestion?—Yes.
This witness had mot concluded his evidence, when the court Rose until Friday morning when Fudge A. G. Mossop, was occupied all-day in further heating the action.
"Boris Sergueviteh Ivanov, con tinuing his evidence-in-chief, and replying to Mr. Newman for plaint-ji, stated that when the cargo was finally received from the defendants there was found to be a very considerable amount of "sweepings" and dirty cargo. In fact, in a letter from the defendants' agents at Tokyo, it was stated that on one of the vessels Dringing soda ash from Japan, 842 bags of "dirty" cargo would be found, for Which an allowance of 50 pet cent. iwas made by the defendants, and all sweepings and the dirty cargo were eventually sold piecemeal for, what would fetch, "as practically", said the witness, "it had no definitely ascertainable value".
'This witness explained that by "sweepings" were meant soda ashi which had escaped from broken bags Ju the ship, and had been "swept" up, and in' answer to the. Judge sated that while "sweepings" might described as "dirty" cargo, dirty jeargo was not necessarily sweepings.
The Judge: Why did the deten: fants make you an, allowance of 50 per cent. for. "sweepings"—That what they offered, You mean they. did it out of] Jgenerosity?: it ts not in the contract. No, it Is not in the contract: you must take what you can get: there {sno actual value to "sweeps".
Did "you ever sell them?—Yes, for what we could get, sometimes for Jone tael per bag. They cannot be used for proper purposes, because they are absolutely. dirty cargo, 2 fas we could not guarantee them, we took what we could get. The retail dealers use them for washing pur-wonder whether my laundry~ man has got any of your "sweeps"? commented his lordship.
Witness further stated in the course Jot his evidence that the plaints would not have entered into the contract of August 3, under _whicl they were now suing, if it had not been well understood that his frm would have received further con tract giving them the sole control of sales "for. all chemicals supplied through the plaintiffs for China.
The Judge: In one of your letters you were asking for further time 1 make payments. for the last lot of soda. Does that not rather bear out the assertion that one of the reasons they did not conclude such an agreement with you was that your members were not giving you sufficient ancial support?—No, that was a ruse on our part, because our accounts were not yet settled, and ws wished to press the Centrosojus 10) settle the account which was due to us, by delaying the principal pay-'Me. Newman: How many different) Arms. did the China Soda Consumers Society consist of?—Fourteen.
'This witness stated that they were' the principal Chinese firms in Shang~ hal dealing in these chemical products.
Considerable further evidence as to weights, quantities, and average prices was given by the witness, who had not concluded his evidence' when the Court rose and the hearing was ad-{journed to Tuesday morning next.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.