Students Win Small Claims Suit; HDNS Must Refund Full Cost

Two Winthrop House juniors yesterday won their suit against Harvard Delivery News Service (HDNS), receiving full reimbursement for newspapers not delivered on time.

Middlesex County Small Claims Court awarded Jeffrey B. Mathews '81 and Daniel C. Esty '81 $38.65 for New York Times and the Boston Globe issues the two failed to receive over the past year and a half.

Archie C. Epps III, Dean of Students, who oversees HDNS was not available for comment yesterday.

Matthews and Esty took Mitchell W. Smith '82, the manager of HDNS, to court in March, challenging HDNS' policy of refunding at the newsstand price only those students who bought the undelivered issues. HDNS agreed to refund at a lower cost those students who did not claim they had bought the undelivered issues.

Matthews and Esty, however, could not collect the original sum of more than $200 that they claimed HDNS owed a large group of Winthrop House students. The Small Claims Court would not allow them to represent persons who were not present at the hearing.

"The case was so open-and-shut that it will provide a clear precedent for other people to get refunds at the newsstand price," Matthews said.

Smith, however, disagreed with Matthews and Esty about the court's ruling effect on those who did not buy newsstand copies to replace the undelivered issues.

Matthews and Esty claim the judge's ruling calls for HDNS to base all refunds on the newsstand price. However, Smith said he would not change his policy of paying the lower price to those students who did not buy replacement newspapers.

John P. Dawson, Fairchild Professor of Law Emeritus, agreed yesterday with the Matthews and Esty position, citing the Unified Commerce Code, which holds that the seller of a good or service not delivered must reimburse the buyer at the price of the substitute whether the buyer bought the substitute.

Dawson said that this has been the tradition in contract law in England and the United States for nearly 200 years.