Page 106 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

CHAPTER 19

THE ONION’S “DAY IN COURT”!

From time to time in the mid 1970’s we managed to obtain more lucrative outside work for
our lorries.
This time we had received a request from a large local produce merchant to transport 10
tons of onions from a grower in Donington to a client in another part of the county.

The produce merchant was know to us and seldom used outside hauliers, but a job was a
job and a good rate was promised for reasonably rapid service.
The job was completed by Albert, lorry driver no 1 who could always be relied on to give
good service. The fee was paid promptly and as our minds were more concerned with the
Hobsters regular contract, we gave the matter no further thought.

A few months passed and we received a strange phone call from those produce
merchants we had carted the onions for. They wanted to know if we were prepared to do
them a favour by making a statement that we had never been paid for the delivery we
made for them.
In explanation, they said that the onions had been of poor quality and they were disputing
payment.

Onions are quite expensive when you are talking about 10 tons and the total was several
hundreds of pounds.
We had been paid a fair rate for the delivery we made and Albert was sure their had been
nothing wrong with the onions themselves.

When we replied saying we could not possibly do what they asked, as it was untrue, they
became very heated and offered various threats of one sort and another.

As this was the one and only job we had ever be asked to do for them, and we did not
work for any of their so called “friends”, we felt that their threats could do us no harm.
Besides, the main issue was being honest, open and fair. Our reputation and work ethics
were at stake!

THE DAY IN COURT ... OR TWO!
The produce merchants, a long established family concern, had a reputation for being high
handed and getting their own way.
For some reason best know to themselves, they were determined not to pay for the
onions. It had been strange in the first place their using us and not one of their own
umpteen lorries!
Apart from several further telephone calls from the produce merchants trying to pressurise
us into following their dishonest requests, the first we actually knew of a court date was
when Ruth and I both received subpoenas to appear in court as hostile witnesses for the
claimant. (The onion producer).

The first court hearing was in Boston Courtrooms close to the Parish Church in the centre
of town. We had been told we could claim reasonable expenses for our appearances.
On the actual day, the local RAF station seemed to practising for world war three.
The noise was so loud nothing could be heard in court and after struggling for an hour or

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