UNUSUAL BANKRUPTCY PETITION

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 9

UNUSUAL BANKRUPTCY PETITION

PETITIONER DEAD-DEBTOR IN CUSTODY [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, June 25. There were two unusual features about a- bankruptcy petition brought before Mr Justice Reed in the Supreme Court to-day. The petitioning creditor, ’Mrs A. M. Shaw, had died since the filing of the petition, and the debtor, Mrs Dorothy Baker, is in custody awaiting trial in the Supreme Court. Mr E. W. Indcr, for the estate of the late Mrs Shaw, said the Public Trustee bad been acting as Mrs Shaw’s agent. Mi's Baker bad been in a matrimonial agency and business of a similar nature. She obtained sums of money from people for promissory notes, and it was suggested that she owed in the vicinity of £1.500 to Mrs Shaw and her husband When steps were taken to obtain repayment, Mrs Baker put in an application that she was a farmer and entitled to the benefits of relief legislation. The Adjustment Commission found that the debtor was neither a home applicant nor a farm applicant. Still delaying the matter, Mr Inder said, Mrs Baker appealed against the commission’s finding. The Court of Review dismissed the appeal, and held that the applicant was not entitled to any of the benefits of the relief legislation. In the meantime Mrs Baker was arrested on two charges. She was admitted to bail on her first appearance, hut the previous day, after the police evidence had been heard, bail was refused. In the. meantime Mrs Shaw bad died. Before tbo commission the debtor showed a deficiency of £1,500, and in her papers she admitted that £I,OOO was due to Mr and Mrs Shaw, so that she really showed a deficiency of £2,500._ The hearing was adjourned.