A COMPANY which distributed, electrical goods and is now in receivership claimed in the High Court yesterday that Power City owed it a total of £276,418.

Magna Distribution Ltd, previously of Carriglea Industrial Estate, Naas Road, Dublin, is taking the action against Power City, Lower Sallynoggin Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

Power City is counterclaiming for the sum of £267,867.

Mr Michael Collins SC, for Magna, said it was a case of goods sold and delivered. The company had been in receivership since July 18th, 1991.

Magna had acted as distributor for three electrical brands: Servis, JVC and Blaupunkt. Power City was a large retailer of such goods and Magna supplied them.

When goods were delivered to Power City, invoices were drawn up. Mr Collins said he had a prima facie case based on a series of invoices for goods.

The three brand suppliers had guarantees on the goods. If there was a problem with an item, Power City would return it to Magna. If the item was still under guarantee, it would be replaced or repaired. Magna would also issue a credit note to Power City if the item was still under guarantee.

Every so often the parties would meet to discuss the outstanding credit and normally reconciliation was reached. The accounts were never fully cleared as there was always a certain amount of outstanding money, Mr Collins said.

On July 19th, 1991, Power City owed his client a balance of £197,650.16, he said. Magna's solicitor issued a demand in August 1991 and then legal proceedings began.

Power City had made two part payments of the sum. The first was on October 25th, 1991, for £56,747.512 and the second on July 19th, 1993, for £12,571.26.

Mr Collins said that with credit for these two amounts taken into account, the net claim was for £128,330.19.

In addition, part of the credit terms was a 2 per cent interest charge on overdue monies. He said the starting dale was August 31st, 1991, on the outstanding balance to date.

The interest claim amounted to £148,088.77. This made Magna's total claim £276,418.96.

The defence was contesting Magna's claim for a number of reasons. Power City said sometimes the invoices on goods had an incorrect price. It argued that it was charged for some faulty goods returned for repair within the guarantee period.

Products which had been repaired and removed from their original carton were then sent back to Power City. They should have been sent back at a lower price, Power City said.

It also argued there were excessive service costs incurred on items outside the guarantee period.

It said some faulty stock was never taken back by Magna. Also, after there was a change in excise duty, Magna should have reimbursed Power City. Power City said this was never done.

It also said that claims on guarantees were not honoured. In particular there was a problem with Blaupunkt televisions and they had to be repaired.

Power City said it was worried that this problem would continue and therefore put aside £135,000 for potential claims.

Power City's counterclaim amounted to £267,867.35.

The case before Mr Justice Kinlen is expected to take at least five days.