The High Court awarded Bio-Medical Research Limited, trading as Slendertone, €175,848 against French distributor Delatex S.A. and dismissed Delatex’s counterclaim over medical devices it alleged were defective.
In a judgment delivered on 29 July 2011, Miss Justice Laffoy considered the parties’ remaining account claim and counterclaim. Earlier disputes over whether an exclusive distribution agreement existed and whether it had been terminated had been decided against the plaintiff on jurisdiction grounds and were later litigated in France. Those matters were not before the court for decision in this judgment.
Bio-Medical Research claimed €200,410.54 for goods and services supplied between 1995 and 1997. The judge accepted the account balance in French francs, subject to removing letter-of-credit discount charges. The plaintiff had not established that Delatex agreed to bear those charges. The judge reduced the claim by FF161,120, equivalent by the parties’ agreed exchange rate to €24,562, leaving €175,848.54 due on the account. The formal order awarded €175,848.
The court rejected Delatex’s €625 credit claim, finding it was not sustained in light of the finding on the plaintiff’s account claim. Delatex also sought FF390,000, or €59,455.12, as damages for 39 Neurotech devices it said had failed. The evidence conflicted about the source of the alleged defects and when complaints were first made. The judge was not satisfied that the devices were defective or that damages could be assessed. She noted the absence of expert evidence examining the devices and found that no complaint or request for redress had been established before 1997, after the two-year warranty period as the court had found it began.
The order gave judgment for the plaintiff for €175,848 and dismissed Delatex’s counterclaim. The judgment does not award the separate interest claim: that claim had been disallowed by an earlier order in 2007.