A MINING JUDGMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 162, 22 July 1901, Page 5

A MINING JUDGMENT.

LONDON, July 14,

On Saturday Mr Justice Channell heard an action in which tbe Waihi Gladstone Geld Mining Company sued Pankhurst and Co., stockbrokers, for £493 13/6 for calls and accrued interest on 500 shares alleged to have been allotted to the defendants at their request. The defendants applied in May, 1896, for 2000 shares in the plaintiff company, and sent with the application a cheque for £100. Subsequently Mr Garrett, a partner in the defendant firm, instructed the secretary of the plaintiff company to place the shares in the names of Sir James Hanbury, Mr Valdiel Smith, and Mr Alfred Weir. Sir James Hanbury paid the calls on the shares allotted to him, and the defendant company those on the shares allotted to Weir, but no calls were paid on the shares allotted to Smith, which were forfeited in January, 1900.

Mr Justice Channell gave judgment for the defendants, who he thought had only incurred liability in respect of .Weir's shares. In bis opinion it was necessary that the defendants' names should be on the register at the time action was brought to found the claim. The plaintiffs could only sue the defendants on the footing that tbe latter were the real and true owners of the shares, and an action could only be brought on the ground that the defendants were the . real principals behind names which were on the register.