DEFENCE OF INFANCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 162, 10 July 1926, Page 18

DEFENCE OF INFANCY.

SUCCEEDS IN CIVIL ACTION,

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.

"By section 12 of the Infants' Act 100S all contracts for goods supplied (other than contracts for necessities) shall be absolutely void. 'How can it. be said that a motor cycle and side chair of the value of £101 10/11 is necessary to a boy aged 10. in that station of life and working PS an apprentice painter? The plaint i!T company has totally failed to prove that.' , Jn this manner Mr. F. K. Hunt. P.M.: gave judgment yesterday for the defendant without costs, in the case of Motor Replacements. Ltd. (Mr. Wyatt) v. King (Mr. Fennell). The plaintiff company sued the defendant for t>9 2/1, being £:s7 ->/l arrears of monthly instalments on a hire-pur-chase agreement and f'22 costs of repairing the bicycle and side chair mentioned in the^agrecment. By a hire purchase agreement dated May 20, 1025, the plaintiffs hired to the defendant a motor bicycle and side chair. The defendant was to pay £5 10/11 per month. AVhen he had paid £101 10/11 the vehicle became his. The defendant handed to the plaintiff his old motor cycle; by the agreement this was valued »\ £,"}.->. Lift he was not to get credit for tiiis sum until his monthly payments amounted to £00 11/. In April, 19'2'i. the plaintiffs repossessed themselves of the cycle and chair, but the defendant did not have possession all the eleven months, as it appeared that plaintiffs had it for three or four months of that time. The defendant, in addition to handing over his old motor cycle, lisis paid plaintiffs £0 10/ in cash. "The defence set up is infancy," said Mr. Hunt. "The defendant will be 21 in [September next, so he was 19 when he entered into the agreement. He is an apprentice painter in the Newmarket railway workshops. His wage is £2 10/ per week and he lives with his parents close -to the Te Papapa railway station, from which station the Department give him a railway pass to go to and from his work. lam of opinion that, in this case, the defence must prevail."'