REPAYMENT OF LOAN

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 108, 3 November 1926, Page 23

REPAYMENT OF LOAN

A BOOKMAKING BUSINESS

CASE WITH UNUSUAL FEATURES.

Judgment was delivered by Mi. Justice Alpers yesterday in a case heard at Palmerston North, in which Charles Crosse claimed from Alfred G. Shearsby £180 and interest, and a further £214 and interest, being moneys paid to the Bank of New South Wales under terms of a guarantee entered into by the plaintiff at the defendant's request. "The defendant admits the amounts, „ but says that the £-180 was paid by j plaintiff to defendant as a contribution j to the capital of a partnership existing j between them; and that the guarantee j given to the bank was a guarantee of j the partnership account. Tho "busir , ness" of the partnership did not• sue-| coed,' and the capital was lost," said j his Honour. "As to the first cause j of action—the claim for £180—the defendant further pleads the Statute of Limitations. And as'to both causes of action, he'says that if it bo proved, that the plaintiff lent the defendant £180 and paid oh defendant's behalf the sums alleged under the guarantee to the bank, then such moneys were loans knowingly made by the plaints to the defendant for the illegal purposes of betting on horse races at totalisator odds.

"The plaintiff at the time of the loan was a man in a responsible position, a sheep-farmer who dabbled in horse-rac-ing and betting as a side-line. On the j whole he seems to have found betting , unprofitable and it occurred to him that the bookmaker's was iho better part. The defendant was in 1918 a lad _of twenty-two—a hanger on of training stables, and a sort of waster. The plaintiff lent him yarious sums amounting in air to. £180, and says this was done to enable the young man to set up in business as a "tea merchant.' I can hardly think the plaintiff intended the Court to take the "tea merchant story seriously. At any rate, I must be excused from believing a word of it. ■ "CHARACTER OF THE NARRATOR." '' The defendant's story is much more probable in itself, although in the circumstances its credibility is not fortified by the character of the narrator. It does, however, receive some corroboration from- another 'turf commission agent' —for what that's worth. "As to the second cause of action— the bank guarantee —fhe plaintiff frankly admits that by the time this was signed ho was completely undeceived as to the tea-myth. 'The banking account,' he.says,'I guaranteed purely for bookmaking business; the previous moneys I advanced were for the tea business.' "On tho plaintiff's own admission, therefore, from the time he guaranteed, the bank account he was fully aware of the character of the business in which he was a partner, or in which he was merely a. 'backer.' The plaintiff expected to be repaid out of the profits of bookmaking, and knew that unless tho defendant "carried on the business of bookmaking successfully he would not bo able to repay the advances; The whole transaction was tainted with illegality, and this part of tho claim fails on tho plaintiff's own admission. "i "One is reluctant to believe any ot the evidence given by a man like the defendant. But this much of his story at least is entitled to credit. Speaking of the first loan of £100 on 30th June, 1918, he says: 'It was understood when Crosse gave me the £100 in Hastings that I was to pay my debtS in Palmerston North (£3O odd) so that I could start with a clean' sheet; I expect they were tradesmen's debts.' This_ amount then, on defendant's own showing, was not tainted by illegality; it, was on the contrary devoted to a very meritorious purpose. But tho rest of the loan of £180 was, I find, to be applied with the plaintiff's full know ledge to the business of betting at totalisator odds, and is therefore irrecoverable." After dealing further with the question, his Honour said: "I give judgment for the plaintiff therefore for the sum of £30, with costs an the lowest scale. The defendant suceeds as to the second cause of action, but in view of tho shabby defence pleaded by him, I allow him no costs."