A NATIVE LAND CASE COSTS TO BE PAID BY PUBLIC TRUSTEE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 11, 13 July 1914, Page 4

A NATIVE LAND CASE COSTS TO BE PAID BY PUBLIC TRUSTEE.

A question asto whether costs should be allowed against tho Public Trustee, arising out of the action Ropata Rauapiri and Akuhata Rauapiri versus the Public Trustee, which concerned the rights of two Native appellants to the proceeds of the sale of a piece of land at Ohau, was decidod by the First Division of the Court of Appeal at tho Supreme Court on Saturday. Mr. C. H. Treadwell for the appellants, in whose favour the Court had decided the point' submitted, applied for costs as against the Public Trustee, and the Public Trustee asked for costs out of the estate. In ; the Court's judgment, it was stated that in any event it would not be proper to give costs out of the estate other than the proceeds of sale which were the subject of the proceedings, and the application by the Public Trustee must therefore be treated as an application for an allowance of his costs out of the proceeds. ,_ The Court left open for further discussion and determination whether it had power to make an order for the payment of the Public Trustee's costs out of proceeds held by him under Section 424 of the Native "Lands Act, 1909, in view of the restrictive provisions of that section, and in particular those of Subsection 3, to the effect that the trust fund shall not be capable of being taken by any form of judicial process for the payment of the debts or liabilities of the beneficiary. Apart from that consideration, '•this was not a case in which the rule referred to should be applied. The Court considered that as the plaintiff had been successful in maintaining the view which had prevailed with the Appeal Court, he should not have to bear the whole of his own costs. "We shall not make any order as to the costs in the Supreme Court," continued the judgment. "As the judgment of that Court is reversed, the order which it contains with regard to costs falls with it. But we give him his costs in this Court, to be paid by the Public Trustee. In order, however, that the plaintiff may bear a fair share- of the expense, we give him those costs on the lowest scale only. The costs to be paid to him by the Public Trustee will, therefore, be £17 17s, together with the cost of printing and the plaintiff's other disbursements in this Court."