ERROR IN NOTICE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 July 1927, Page 5

ERROR IN NOTICE.

BANKRUPTCY ORDER. SET ASIDE

UJY TELEGRAPH—TKEJ3S ASSOCIATION.J HAMILTON, July Id. The sum of eleven shillings wrongly charged was the cause of a successful appeal in a Supreme Court judgment. The appellant, Mr H. Eva, a horse trainer of Te Arolia, who, in the absence of the judge, was adjudicated bankrupt at Hamilton by the Registrar of the Court on the petition of Auckland creditors. The act of bankruptcy relied upon was that the debtor, having been served wih a bankruptcy notice requiring him to pay a judgment debt of £3O 18s lid, failed to comply with the notice.

The debtor sought to have the order made by the Registrar rescinded or annulled upon the grounds that the bankruptcy notice erroneously stated the amount for which judgment had been obtained against him. The certificate also showed further costs incurred after tbc date upon which the judgment was got, amounting to 11s. The 11s represented the costs of the unsuccessful distress proceedings taken by plaintiff after the judgment was got. It was contended on bankrupt’s behalf that, because the bankruptcy notice required bankrupt to pay £3O 18s lid, and not £3O 7s lid, the amount of the original judgment, the bankruptcy notice was bad and all subsequent pro;eedings upon it irregular. Mr. Justice Herdman’s judgment stated, inter alia: “I sympathise with the view taken by the Registrar in these proceedings, but it is plain that 1 have no option but to decide that the order made by him should be set aside. The setting aside of his order means that the creditor will be put to the expense of serving a new bankruptcy notice and filling a fresh petition, a consequence which is unfortunate. but, in the present state of the law in New Zealand, it appears to be unavoidable.”