DISBANDED CLUB

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 December 1937, Page 7

DISBANDED CLUB

DIVISION OF ASSETS

[peb press association.]

CHRISTCHURCH, December 8

Have-the 1 members of. an athletic chib, relying partly on public support for its existence, any right to divide the assets of the club among themselves, when it is disbanded? This question came before the Supreme Court to-day, when an order was sought determining whether the surplus assets of the Lyttelton Rowing Club, which has gone out of existence, were subject to any trust. The surplus assets of the club are £250, and, at the meeting at which it was agreed to wind up its affairs,, it was decided to divide the surplus among its eleven members.

The liquidators of the assets of the club, which is incorporated under the Incorporated Societies Act, sought the order of the Court.

The distribution, as proposed by members of the club, was opposed by Henry Ryder and others of Lyttelton, for whom Mr. W. J. Sim appeared. The liquidators, Albert William Barbery, of Christchurch, clerk; and Stephen Rosmea Sinclair, of Lyttelton, cabinetmaker, were represented by Mr. H. J. Upham. Mr. Justice Northcroft, who was on the bench, gave no ruling on law. He expressed clear disapproval, however, of the action proposed by the members of the club, and adjourned the hearing sine die, to allow counsel for the liquidators to try to make arrangements for some other method of distribution.

“Are the young men aware of what they propose to do, which is certainly reprehensible and calculated to alienate public sympathy?” asked His Honor at one stage.

“I may say that, unless the law compels me .otherwise, Mr. Ryder’s attitude is entirely proper,” he said on another occasion. “It is undesirable that, by a stroke of chance, these young men should divide the assets.”