UNUSUAL BANKRUPTCY

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 October 1928, Page 5

UNUSUAL BANKRUPTCY

TWO SETS OF CREDITORS.

(Per Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, October 12.

Ah unusual legal position has arisen as the result of the bankruptcy at Ashburton, of George Wilcox, garage proprietor, who was already an undischarged bankrupt, having been adjudicated in Auckland in 1922. Claims proved against his estate at that time amounted to £503, and the assets realised £2. The liabilities in th© Ashburton bankruptcy amounted to £6354. The assfcawe there had realised £BlO, and‘nßKoped to realise a further £250 from book debts. If the Auckland creditors took the full sum to which they were entitled, only about £250 would remain to be distributed among the Canterbury creditors. Mi'. A. S. Nicholls, on behalf of the Canterbury creditors, said he was aivai-e he had no legal standing, but the Canterbury creditors had felt that tile legal position was not quite fair. The creditors in. the first bankruptcy were entitled to the full amount and interest at 5 per cent., but speaking equitably the money was not the Auckland creditors’ money, but money collected out of assets that had been bought with the Canterbury creditors’ money. He suggested that the Auckland creditors should accept 10s in the pound, which would give them a fair dividend, while allowing the Canterbtiiy creditors something less than 2/- in the pound. The only resolution passed was that the creditors at the meeting, acting unahimously and as an act of grace, were prepared to forego the interest, and recommend the creditors not present to do the same. “This is the first case in my experierice in which Auckland creditors have benefited from creditors in any other part of the Dominion in this why,, but there have been three cases in which Auckland creditors have lost to creditors elsewhere,” the Assignee said. “These cases, however, have not been on all fours with this one, in which 20/- in the pound, is available. The others were small amounts.”