TIMARU DISTRICT COURT.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 8357, 16 December 1892, Page 6

TIMARU DISTRICT COURT.

At the District; Court sittings at Tiinarn on Tuesday, his Honour Judge Ward declared the public examination of Lewis Graut closed, on the application of Mr Raymond. The examinations of X. E. E. Jefcoate and J. Maberley were adjourned till January. Discharges were granted to J. J. McCfabe, J. J. Deely and F. Drake. Motions dealing with the Boss Arcade mortgage, and an agreement between Boss and Mrs Josephine Bower were adjourned till the January sittings. An application to fix the ownership of property as between the assignee in the estate ot William Collins and' Mr Ebenezer Smith, was also adjourned till next sitting, there being a ptouabiliby of an amicable settlement. Probate was granted of the wills of W. Couch and J. McDonald, and letters of administration of the intestate estate of Harriet Lorner. The civil action William Joseph Gambling v Job Brown was Commenced. It was a claim for £100 in equal proportions (1) for malicious prosecution and (2) tor slander. The case arose in Teinuka. The ground of action for slander is that defendant charged the plaintiff "who, with his sistev, Had j rented a wheelwright's shop from Brown at Temufca with steabng timber and calling him " a pilferer and a thief." Malicious prosecution consisted in Brown charging plaintiff with the larcepy of timber value £1, a case which Mr Wray, R,M., kad heard and dismissed. The case was concluded on Wednesday. His Honour in giving judgment said tne plaintiff had been exceedingly ill-advised; he would have been much wiser to leave the case where ifc was when it left the Resident Magistrate's Court. According to his own account he had been iv the habiC of putting timber in various places, where, according to the weight of evidence, it could not be seen. SurYidge said he could see some of jt, but his evidence could noc be taken against that of the police constable and others. As to the timber behind the rack, the girl might be mistaken as to the time, but there was evidence of Barr who examined the place first, and then Brown who caused plaintiff himself to go and fish out the timber, and he had to go under the rack to get it out, as the girl stated he got tinder the rack to put it there. He could not but think that this case would not have been brought had it not been for the inconceivable folly of the defendant, who ought to have let the slander case go on, or-else have laid an information for larceny at once. But he shuffled the matter with Mrs Stanton, waited till he got notice of action for slander, and then he laid an information. He had no choice but to give judgment in his favour, but he must say that it was an exhibition of extreme folly on his part. . In the Boss-Bower case, which Judge Ward had before him on Wednesday" and yesterday, his Honour gave his decision as follows: —This application is to have certain shares in the Timaru Gas, Coal and Coke Company tranferred from Boss to Bower. It appears that Bower transferred these shares u> Boss in the first instance with a view to enable Boss to obtain commercial credit, and practically to commit a fraud on the Gas Company by pretending that these shares were vested in him, so, that he might be elected a Director of the Company. It was now claimed (after this fraud had been committed) that Boss obtained these shares on truut (clause 71), and that they are not available, for sale and distribution among his creditors. lam of opinion that that is not a case in which clause 71 applies. If there be any case in which clause 81 applies, where a bankrupt holds -goods or chattels by consent of the proper owner, i 'in such; a way as to appear the true owner, ' and takes upon him himself the position of the true owner, it seems 4o mc this is such a case. Practically Bower's application comes to this, "I only transferred these shares to Boss to enable him to defraud j other people. Now I find I have been defrauded myself, and I want protection from those people whom I enabled Ross to defraud." Under these circumstances I can give no further assistance than the strict letter of thfe law compels mc to give. It seems to mc that these shares come within the order and disposition clause. It is admitted that certain notice ! was given by Ferguson, Bower's attorney, to the effect that these shares were not in reality Boss' property, bub belonged j to Bowers and were transferred by him to Ross to hold simply as trustee for him. That this notice however was given subsequent to the acts of bankruptcy by Boss, I entertain no doubt. On and after Saturday, 25th June, two days after the decision in the Bailey case, acts j of bankruptcy were committed by Boss by absenting himself from bis place of business and avoiding his creditors as much as possible. The bankruptcy, therefore, relates back to the 25th day of June. Then j it was contended that notwithstanding those acts of bankruptcy having been committed by Boss, the notice to the Gas Company must be held to be sufficient, because it was given before Bower had any knowledge of I the acts of bankruptcy; Bower was absent from the colony, and it was impossible that he should have notice of the acts of bankruptcy, but he left an agent here. It was the agent himself who coirmitted the acts of bankruptcy, therefore Bower's agent had notice of them. The motion would be dismissed with costs. Disbursements— Solicitor's fee, iss ss. Mr Hay intimated that, his client \fc>uld probably appeal, a large sum of money, £650, being involved, and he asked hie Honour to fix the amount of security for costs. His Honour named £20. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAMS.) TIMARU, December 14. Another of D. M. Boss , frauds was before Judge Ward yesterday and to-day, on a motion to recover from the assignee, for A. J. H. Bower, £650 worth of Gas Company's shares, transferred from Bower to Ross in 1888. The apparently bona fide sale was questioned till just before Ross filed, when he stated that no consideration had been given, and he held the shares on trust. His Honour dismissed the motion, and apoite strongly of the fraudulent compact.