COMPANY PROMOTION.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14982, 1 June 1914, Page 4

COMPANY PROMOTION.

UNSUCCESSFUL COURT CLAIM

(riXESS ASSOCIATION- TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, May 80. Judgment was given by Mr Justice Stringer in tho Supreme Court to-day in a claim by William Dal ton against a company called Manures, Ltd.. and ite directors, for the return of £625. which amount was subsequently reduced to £SGO, alleged to have been invested in the company as.allotment and application money m respect of 2-00 .shares. The defence was that the money paid over by Dalton was a loan to Tyramain. the main promoter in tho flotation of the company. ". Evidence was given by Alfred Taylor, J. S. Dickson, M.P., James Culpan', and John Rountrce, directors. Each admitted . having accepted fifty shares in the company for • nothing, getting the assurance that theywotud have no responsibility whatever. Mr Dickson said lie, consented after declining three or four times, anil.after signing the prospectus ho heard nothing further about the company. He was electioneering. His Honour said that plaintiff had failed to prove that the £500.. was paid to some person with authority to receive it on behalf of tho prospective company. Moreover, he thought there could bo no question that the transaction ivas a loan by Dalton to Tyremain, and made under'such conditions that plaintiff would.know the money would not get into'tho coffers, of tho company. Qis Honour added", with reference to the application for shares, that the transaction h-d merely be >n engineered hv an agent, fETughc-, in order to get Ins own commission. Although it was proved that tho directprs had not been gnily.of. misconduct ■or negligence,, it seemed to him that when gentlemen, apparently of business experience, lent their names to a prospectus .and signed document- which might mislead the public, they were guilty of grave misconduct from a public point of view. _ Judgment was entered for defendants.