MINIMUM PRICE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 88, 14 April 1930, Page 12

MINIMUM PRICE

WANGANUI ESTATE

TRUSTEES' APPLICATION

"When a testator says a property is not to bo sold until it reaches such aud such a price, he is looking a, long way ahead, and one hesitates before making an order for the property to be sold for considerably less," said his Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) in the Supreme Court to-day, when dealing with an application by the trustees of the estate of the late Alexander Hatrick, of Wanganui. "The trustees sought the Court's authority to accept an offer for it warehouse freehold in Taupo quay, Wanganui, which, with a quarter-aero section adjoining, the testator had directed should not bo sold for less than £30,000. The testator's children, life tenants under the will, had consented to an order. Mr. I'1. C. Spratt, who represented the trustees, submitted that the conditions now wore entirely different from those existing when the will was made. His Honour, in making the observation quoted, remarked that the offer was something like a fourth of the testator's figure. Counsel said that most eases which came before the Court were of trustees wishing to, sell a business for shares in a company to be promoted for the purpose of purchasing the businessj, or wishing to postpone the- conversion of assets beyond the time fixed by the testator. The present case was the converse of one in which the Court was asked to prolong an uncertain condition in the expectation of an improvement. His Honour: "Well, it is something more. In ordinary circumstances this property might not be sold for twenty or thirty years, and by that time in a city of perhaps one hundred thousand people, who can tell? That is what this man might have been looking forward to." His Honour asked counsel whether he had any cases where a sale had been permitted contrary to the provisions of the trust at less than the testator's figure. NO DIRECT AUTHORITY. Counsel replied that ho had been, unable to find a direct authority. There was one case, however, where the testator had fixed the price and had limited the persons to whom the property could be sold. It had been held that the direction was inconsistent with the gift, but; of course, that was a different case. There was no case, as far as he could find, where the testator had fixed the minimum price and the Court had given leave to sell at a lower price. His Honour: "This property has not become a liability." Counsel: "The affidavits show, I submit, that it is already a. liability." His Honour: "Well, even so, the testator 'might well have thought, 'Hero is an estate with plenty of money, and I am not going to have the property sold until it reaches a certain figure.' My present view is that I don't'like it." , At a later stage, his Honour said it might have been that the testator was. a very long-visioned man and had como to his decision after very mature reflection. i "A DRAG, UPON THE TRUST." Counsel said that the placo was already a drag upou the trust, to which his Honour replied that one way in which the trustees could probably get relief would be by way of a private Act. . ' ; Counsel explained that it was a case I of the business centre of the town shifting. His Honour: "If it were my property, I would sell it rather than run tho risk of keeping it aud ultimately selling it for less, but then I am not the testator." The trustees were asking, the Court to go a tremendous way, further than any reported case had ever gone. If an order of this kind were made, it would become a precedent. Mr. H. F. Yon Haasfc, appearing for tho testator's infant grandchildren, who arc.entitled to the corpus o*f the estate, drew the Court's attention to the fact that the testator did not contemplate the property being cut up. ] The sale of one part might defeat his object. It was quite true that the conditions had altered, but, counsel submitted, the Court was being asked to do something in direct conflict with the testator's wishes. It was a matter in which the trustees should go to Parliament for authority. His Honour: "Can yo\ frankly suggest to nic that I can do this?" Counsel: "I don't think that- I can. I feel this is essentially a case, quite apart from the question of whether'the Court has power, in which the .trustees might be expected, if directed to con- j vert at once, to come- to Court asking | for authority to postpone the conversion." Assuming that the Court had the power to order the sale, the offer was so much below the testator's figure that it was a. fair view that the Court should not order the sale." His Honour: "My present opinion is that the Court is. being asked to go too far. If it w-ero only a question of the price being too low, it would not cause me- too much concern." At the conclusion of argument, his Honour said .he would look into the matter in the hope, however, remote, that his present view might be changed.