BANKRUPT GROCER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 105, 4 May 1923, Page 7

BANKRUPT GROCER.

A MATTER OF EXCHANGE. VALUES IX QUESTION. Although he had been brought up as a grocer when n boy in Australia, Alfred Theodore Merryful, had been out of the trade for many years, but when lie entered business nearly three years ago in Devonport with £160 capital everything came back to him as though he had never left the counter, so he told the Official Assignee (Mr. W. S. Fisher) this morning at the first meeting of creditors in the estate. Owing to unsecured creditors is the sum of £420, and to secured creditors £584. Against this there is by way of assets a property at Avondale said lo be worth £800, leaving a nominal surplus of £210. In the course of his statement the bankrupt said he sold the business to Messrs. Civil and Scott, through Mr. H. Lewis, taking in exchange the Avondale property said to be worth £1150. When put up to auction, however, the best bid was £750, but there was subsequently a private offer of £800. The bankrupt said that if the property at Avondale bad been worth the amount it was supposed to be, there would not have been any necessity for him to file. In answer to further questions bankrupt said he had asked Mr. Lewis to value the Avondale place and his valuation was £1100, £50 less than the vendor's estimate.

Mr. Lewis wished to make a statement in reply. Mr. A. J. Entrican, representing the firm of A. J Kritrican, Ltd., the largest unsecured creditor (£200) saiu it would be better if no statement were made. The matter would obviously have to be fought out, and so it would not be fair to any of the parties if statements were made at that meeting. When the business was exchanged for the Avondale property there was enough to pay 25/ in the pound, but now it was doubtful whether the estate would pay 5/ in the pound. The question was whether the exchange was justified, and were the creditors going to take it lying down? Mr. McElveen said he for one would give all his prospective dividend to fight the matter out. Mr. Entrican: The thing is unsatisfactory, but I make no insinuations. Mr. E. L. Thwaites (solicitor for Mr. Lewis) wished to question bankrupt about the valuation of the stock at the time of the exchange, and as to the difference (some £200) between the amount appearing in the agreement and the actual value of the stock. Some of the creditors said this did not affect the point at all, an the stock was taken over at a valuation. Mr. Thwaites then asked if anyone had ever seen a. property valued for exchange purposes at the same amount aa it would be likely to bring at auction? Mr. Entrican replied that such arguments were beside the point. Mr. Lewis wanted to know whether anyone competent had valued the property since the exchange. Mr. Fisher suggested that surely putting the property up to auction and then getting a private offer would sufficiently fix the value? Mr. Lewis pressed his point for an independent valuation, Mr. Entrican: All right, we will fix that up. The meeting then unanimously agreed that three of the large unsecured creditors should act in conjunction with the Ollicial Assignee and take such action in "regard to the exchange of the business as they should deem advisable.

At the suggestion of Mr. Entrican the meeting agreed to hand over the furniture to Mrs. Merryfull. Mr. Entrican said lie had always acted very decently. He had just managed to make things go, and ha<l he sold out at a fair valuation there would have been a surplus of übout £lf)0. It seemed that a cutting grocer had set up in Devonport, and bankrupt apparently getting tired of it had been rather too anxious to sell out quickly.