BIG TAKAPUNA ESTATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1930, Page 8

BIG TAKAPUNA ESTATE.

BANKRUPTCY PETITION.

FURTHER EVIDENCE REQUIRED,

Recently Mrs. Agnes Bovd, of Tauranga (Mr. -Grant) petitioned to havo Ewen William. Alison, the younger, and liia wife, Winnie Alison (Mr. Northcroft) declared bankrupt. In a written judgment given yesterday Mr. Justice Smith adjourned the petition to the next I bankruptcy sittings of the Supreme Court. It was-stated during the hearing of the petition that the debtors' estate, consisting largely of property at Takal puna, was valued a t £116,000, and that the claims of. some 40 creditors amounted to £SO,OOO, " The petition is founded upon noncompliance with a bankruptcy notice requiring payment of the sum of £528, being the amount of a final judgment received by the petitioning creditor against the debtors," said his Honor. The petition stated that the debt was secured by a mortgage from the debtors to the petitioner, securing the principal sum of £500 and interest, and that the petitioner valued the security at £300. The petition was objected *to on the ground that the debtors had assigned the whole estate, for the benefit of all their creditors. Six creditors out of a total of 39 had so far signed the deed of assignment, but it was anticipated for the debtors that all the creditors except the bank were prepared to sign the deed. It was clear that each debtor had committed an act of bankruptcy anterior to the act of bankruptcy constituted by the execution of the deed of assignment. His Honor held that the deed of assignment in the present case could not be "a auffi. cient cause" enabling the Court to dismiss the petition. "The proper course for a judge to take when hearing a petition in bankruptcy which is either unopposed or ih which, if opposed, a point is taken 'of which no notice is given by the debtor, is to rule upon the evidence,-" The view which I take here, then," his Honor, "is that I must rule upon the question of evidence, and I accordingly rule that oral evidence must be given to establish the petitioning creditor's debt and that the petitioning creditor must have the opportunity to adduce such evidence. The petition will therefore be adjourned to the next bankruptcy sittings of the Court, so that the proceedings may be then continued, and oral evidence adduced by the creditor as to the value of her security."