Ban on Bateman’s TV?

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 1

Ban on Bateman’s TV?

A black ban on all Bateman’s Television shops in Canterbury will be sought from the 'Canterbury Trades Council this morning. The organiser for the Canterbury Clerical Workers’ Union (Mr G. W. Lowrie) said last evening that the ban, stopping the flow of goods into or out of the company’s shops and workshops, would be asked for to ensure that some 31 employees now out of work would receive adequate redundancy payments. At a meeting with the Official Assignee (Mr I. A. Hansen) and the receiver (Mr S. W. Bullen), Christchurch staff had been told that the most they could be paid under the Corhpanies Act was $4OO. It is believed that some employees are owed several hundred dollars beyond that.

The shops of Bateman’s Television (1973), Ltd. In Christchurch. Hornby, Ash-

burton, and Rangiora were closed yesterday after a Supreme Court order to wind up the company. Notices fixed to the shops’ main doors told customers that the business was closed. Inquiries were directed to the company’s head office in Christchurch. Reporters were referred from there to Messrs Hansen and Bullen. Mr Hansen has been appointed provisional liquidator by the Court. The two men inspected the company’s assets yesterday and told the staff that they no longer had jobs. Mr Lowrie said last evening that the staff had been told they would have to join other unsecured creditors if they wanted to receive more money than the maximum allowed by law. He had advised the staff to register as unemployed this morning. Mr Hansen said it was too early to say how the company’s assets would be

disposed of or how many unsecured creditors there were. Persons who had hired television sets from the company would know in time what action they would be required to take. Bateman’s Television was formed in 1973 to purchase the assets of five earlier Bateman companies and to carry on the Bateman television business. It was set up by major creditors of the group, who converted some of their debt claims into interests in the new company. The settlement ended six years of litigation which began in September, 1968, and which included an appeal to the Privy Council, at least four appeals to the Court of Appeal, and many Supreme Court hearings. At the time the settlement provided for the payment of an undisclosed sum to the contributors, Messrs N. D. Bateman and G. I. Thomas, a convenant by

Messrs Bateman and Thomas limiting their rights to engage in the television business, and the admission in full of the claims of the Coleridge finance group against the Bateman Companies, of which Mr W. A. Hadlee was the liquidator. It also resolved a number of disputes and issues among the liquidators of the various Bateman companies. The Coleridge group at the time claimed debts of $495,000 against the companies and the winding up of these companies, of which Coleridge was the major creditor, was to provide the means to purchase the assets of the companies in liquidation. However, it was not until a full year later, in December, 1974, that all outstanding matters were settled by the Supreme Court in Christchurch. Court hearing, Page 5.