ORDER ON DAIRY BONUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 112, 13 May 1926, Page 16

ORDER ON DAIRY BONUS.

FORGOT TO PRESENT IT.

ANOTHER IN AHEAD.

ASSIGNEE SUED. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, Wednesday. A claim based on the assignment of a cream cheque was brought in the Magistrate's Court before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., to-day in which Harry D. Matthews and Give Matthews. farmers. of Hamilton, claimed from W. A. Kendon, assignee in the estate of William Woolven, public accountant, of Auckland, the ' sum of £80 14/8.

According to the statement of claim, Woolven. on November 17, 1923, irrevocably assigned his bonus for cream supplied to the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company for the season 1923-24, up to £100 to the plaintiffs. On March G. 1924, Woolven assigned his estate to Kendon and the bonus was paid by the Dairy Company to the defendant. Mr. H. T. Gillies appeared for plaintiffs and Mr. L. Tompkins for defendant.

Mr. Gillies said that in the spring of 1923, Woolven was indebted to the Matthew Bros, for a considerable sum, and gave them a note assigning his cream bonus for 1923-24 on the New Zealand Dairy Company. . At that time the price of butter was very high, but it fell shortly afterwards, and it was thought that no bonus was really to come and the order was put away. On March <i Woolven assigned his estate and it was not known until later that the bonus was a valuable one. The note assigning the bonus was put away with other papers and was not discovered until some time later, as it had been completely overlooked, probably by both parties. Woolven owed Matthews Bros. several hundred pounds, and for some reason or other they did not become creditors in Woolven's bankrupt estate. When finally they presented the order for the bonus to the Dairy Company,, they learned that the money had been paid to Kendon.

For the defence it was contended that Woolven assigned the moneys to Kendon on March 6, 1924, and' that notice was given to the Dairy Company in April. Although this assignment might be later in date than the order to Matthews Bros, it obtained priority by having notice of it given first. Furthermore, when Woolven gave the assignment there was nothing to assign because the bonus was only declared at the discretion of the directors, and it was quite possible there might have been none. In any case the bonus followed the owner of the shares, who at the time it was declared was Kendon. Evidence was heard on both sides and judgment was reserved.