CLAIM DISALLOWED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 232, 28 June 1935, Page 6

CLAIM DISALLOWED

Accountant’s Action Against Liquidator By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, June 27. Judgment was given by Mr. Justice Callan to-day on a claim (brought by Ivan Towers, of Auckland, accountant, against the liquidator of International Concessions Ltd., for admission of a debt. Towers claimed to be a Creditor of the company for £3OO bn account of services. The judge said that the services consisted in having told the directors of a valuable concession which Towers happened to know could be procured in Danzig. He also conducted a cable correspondence with a man in London at the company’s expense. “It appears to me,” said the judge, “that £3OO is an exceedingly large sum for so small an expenditure of time and energy, and I venture to think there are few members of any skilled profession who could earn, so much money with so much ease, notwithstanding that they have had to devote laborious and expensive years in acquiring their training.” The judge said he recognised, however, that in the sphere'of company promotion and flotation gentlemen who hoped to make large profits for themselves and shareholders were prepared to pay large sums for useful guidance and information. It appeared that over £7OOO was paid by this company in an endeavour to get the concession, although its actual price was under £9OO, and that the concession, when obtained, was ultimately sold to. an Australian company for 25,000 fullypaid shares in that company. . Finally, the judge said he was absolved from assessing Towers’s remuneration because he concluded from the evidence that Towers volunteered Itis services in the course of seeking employment from the company. The motion to admit the proof of debt was dismissed.