UNUSUAL PETITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 197, 21 August 1929, Page 12

UNUSUAL PETITION.

OVERPAYMENT ALLEGED. DISCOVERED FOUR YEARS LATER. (By Telegraph. —Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Mr. Halliburton Johnstone, of Avondale, has petitioned Parliament asking that an inquiry' be held into a matter arising out of "a Supreme Court action, so that justice may be done. j Petitioner states that in June, 1924, cross actions jvere brought in the Supreme Court at Auckland for partnei - ship accounts between Campbell Johnstone and Bernice Monrath Johnstone and himself. After the actions had been partlv heard a settlement was arrived at and certain terms were signed by the parties. It was. not'r tip four rears later that petitioner discovered the written statement of the settlement was not what he had agreed to, and that bv its terms he was giving to the other 'parties mentioned above many, thousands of pounds more than they claimed in their statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court. Petitioner further states that he was ..advised .by his solicitors that having signed the terms of settlement he must carry them out. Finally, he was induced. .to do this by the promise of Campbell and Bernice Johnstone that if he signed the then required document, the accounts > would be fully gone into and fairly and properly adjusted.' "Acting on this promise, I duly signed the documents required, whereupon Campbell Johnstone refused to readjust or go into any accounts between us, and I was coni' polled to give him and Bernice Johnstone £331'2 more than'they claimed in their statement of claim, and over £11,000 more than I understood I was giving them when I agreed to a compromise." Petitioner says that to all claims and demands that accounts be adjusted both the other parties plead the Statute of Limitations as a bar, and he therefore requests' that Parliament appoint, persons to hold an inquiry, so that the injustice' lnay„ be removed, vyhile doinsrj equal justice to the other two parties. Mr. H. G. R. Mason (Auckland Suburbs) presented this petition.-