KARACHI, Oct 22: The Sindh High Court has put on notice two automobile companies in a product liability suit for Nov 6 to file written comments.

The suit for the recovery of Rs 32,28,890 has been filed by Dr. Farooq Hayat, through Nasir Maqsood. The Indus Motors Company and the Toyota Western Motors have been made respondents.

The plaintiff had booked a Daihatsu Coure CL-2000 through the defendant No 2, who was the authorised dealer and agent of the defendant No 1. At the time of booking of the said car, the plaintiff paid Rs1,00,000.00 against the total sale price of Rs3,59,000.00. The balance amount of Rs2,59,000.00 was to be paid at the time of delivery.

The plaintiff maintains that defendant No 2 informed him after a couple of months that the defendant No 1 had stopped manufacture of Daihatsu Coure CL-2000 model, and, therefore, categorically made it clear that it was out of question to comply with the booking order of the plaintiff on the terms and conditions entered into earlier.

But at the same time defendant No.2 forwarded the option that if the plaintiff was anxious to have the same model, it could only be made available if the entire amount was paid immediately. Otherwise, he would be refunded the advance money of Rs100,000.00 deposited in this connection.

The plaintiff made the entire payment immediately, not knowing that the particular model batch had some manufacturing defect, otherwise, he would have asked for the refund of advance money.

It is the contention of the plaintiff that since the car is manufactured by one of world’s leading automobile manufacturers, it must have gone through tough procedures of quality control to prevent the presence of any defect.

The plaintiff listed defects which were not even fixed by the engineer of the Indus Motor Company.

After correspondence, when the defendant No 1 finally sent its technical staff, defects were brought to their notice. After sometime vide their letter dated 7.2.2001, defendant No.2 informed the plaintiff on behalf of defendant No 1 “that your car was thoroughly inspected with respect to the above conditions you had described. It was determined by the IMC technical staff that all these observations are within the specifications and non- of these have any effect on the fundamental functions of the vehicle.