FAIRLIE V. FANNING & ANOR.

6.12280 /45

BB. Dew, Gov, Print, Melb.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

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REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

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FAIRLIE

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FANNING' & ANOR.

CUDGMENT (ORAL) DIXON C.J.

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FANNING & ANOR,

JUDGMENT (ORAL DIXON C.J,

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment given by his Honour Judge Wells in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, The action was one in which the plaintiff by his statement of claim claimed damages under five heads which are enumerated in the claims appended to the statement of claim under paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e). The defendants filed a counter claim for £205:14:4 for storage charges. The action arises out of the storage of certain goods which were obtained by the plaintiff as a purchaser from Commonwealth Disposals. The events go back to the month of January 1947 and possibly earlier. The defendants havenot been represented upon the appeal and that is a circumstance which perhaps does not make it any easier to decide the matter. We have a further embarrassing fact and that is that we have no account of the reasons for the learned judge's decision, except a fragmentary statement which appears in the affidavit upon which leave to appeal was granted,

The plaintiff's complaint in the action is, in effect, that he was deprived of certain goods which were stored for him by the defendants and were not re-delivered to him. There were, however, some demands included in the statement of claim on another basis to which it is not necessary to refer with great particularity. It is enough to say, first, that under paragraphs (a) amd (c) of the claims judgment was given for the plaintiff for am amount of £16:8:3, and, secondly, that the item in paragraph (b) which is there stated at £110:19:0, took its

place as a deduction from the storage charges to which the