Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 10 December 1955, page 6


£37,228

to car

firm

An independent arbitra-tor has awarded thc Hart-nett Motor Co. Ltd. (Mel-bourne) £37,228 against the Commonwealth Engin eering Co. Ltd. (Sydney).

The Federal Government controls the Commonwealth Engineering Co.

The arbitrator, Mr. S. N. West, fixed damages at £19,978 and ordered the C.E.C. to pay £17,250 to ward Hartnett's costs.

Mr. L. J. Hartnett, chair-man of directors of Hart-ness, said in Melbourne yes-terday that his company had claimed £170,000 damages for failure to de-liver 2,000 steel panels for the Hartnett car. The panels were ordered in 1950, but never delivered.

'Future'

"At least, I can stop worrying and I am out of the straight jacket which has stopped development of the car," Mr. Hartnett said.

Production of the car ceased in 1952 after only 80 cars had been manufactured.

Mr. Hartnett said that the future of the "people's car" would be decided soon by a special meeting of the 750 shareholders.

"I doubt whether this meeting will be before Christmas," said Mr. Hart-nett. "We have had an offer from one firm for the com-pany, and negotiations for sale- are proceeding, but we can't say exactly what will happen until after the shareholders meet."