CLAIM/FOR RENT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 12, 14 July 1931, Page 9

CLAIM/FOR RENT

CASE AGAINST WIDOW

COUNSEL AND PUBLIC MAN

In tho Magistrate's Court to-day,- L. X-, J. J., and A. F. Clark asked for judgment for £6 ,14s, being twenty-five days' rent at £1 ISsa week, and for an order for possession, against Beatrice Bray, a widow. . , When the case was called, Mr. 0. C. Mazengarb, counsel ■ for the defendant, asked for.an adjournment on the grounds that "the defendant, who was a widow,; sixty-odd.years of age, had had to go into, the Hospital to-day for' ;i serious operation. He considered that ..in tliis case the Court would, have no sympathy for. the plaintiffs on the application for adjournment. The defendant, he said, had been a tenaut ■in ' the house since November, 1914, and had always paid her rent regularly until a few weeks ago, when her son had lost his employment. The rent was collected by Mr. J. J. Clark, a wellknown public man, and a candidate. for political honours. Mr. W. Fortune (appearing . for the plaintiffs): "I don't think it is necessary to state that." ' . Mr. T. B. M'Neil, S.M.: "No, I don t think that has anything to do with it. Mr..Mazengarb:. "I mentioned it merely because he, as a public man, knows the position in which tenants are placed at the present time." Counsel said that when- Mr. Clark called for the rent on 29th May the defendant explained that her son had been : out of work for eight weeks, and she could pay only £1 that week. Since her son had been but of ■work the defendant had not paid • the full amount each -week,1 but she had- always paid something—the best she could. Mr. Clark told the - defendant that she had better take a week's notice, and a few days later'he had taken out the present summons for an order for possession when the rent "was only twenty-five daysin arrear. "The proceedings are most scandalous in view of the fact that the defendant has been such a good tenant for seventeen years," concluded Mr. Mazengarb. : The Magistrate:. "Mr. . -Fortune, this seems to me to be a proper easejii which I should make an adjournment—m fact, I am. going to make .one, but it is a question of how long." . . Mr. Fortune said that: the case had been spmewhat overstated by the defend-, ant's solicitor. The rent, had been overdue for some considerable, time, he sfaid, but it had been allowed to rim on. Mr. M'Neil said that^ the claim was for only £6 14s, and he would grant an adjournment smedio^^-^^^