CHILD MAINTENANCE FUND

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 July 1932, Page 5

CHILD MAINTENANCE FUND

ALLOWANCE BY BANKRUPT.

DISPUTED BY ASSIGNEE.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) 'WELLINGTON, July 27,

An application under tlie Bankruptcy Act concerning John Moug, bankrupt, Wellington, was heard by Mr Justice MacGregor in the Supreme Court today, the official assignee seeking to have declared void as against him a deed of settlement dated March 1, 1931, and outhority in writing dated September 18, 1931, given by Moug for the maintenance of his child Neta June Moug and involving sums of £759 and £IOO respectively. The assignee asked that the trustees, David Wilson Virtue and Reginald Ilardie Boys, be ordered to make available the £BSO or sufficient to pay the creditors 20s in the pound. Decision was reserved. The grounds of application were that Moug was adjudged bankrupt on January 29, 1:932, and that the two documents and the payment of the money were a settlement of property void as against the official assignee under the Bankruptcy Act. During the hearing counsel for Mrs Moug said .the trustees of ithe settlement would simply abide by the order of the Court. It had been conceded that there had been good.faith on the part of Mrs Moug and the trustees. - His Honour: What do you say the real consideration -was?

(Counsel 'submitted that Mrs Moug had given valuable consideration by abandoning all maintenance proceedings in favour of the child, cancelling existing maintenance order and for taking out a charging order against the bank deposit. Under the Destitute Persons Act an order could bo made against a person who could be shown not to have adequately supported any one for whose support he was responsible, but To the extent that the deed provided the child with adequate maintenance there could be no claim by the wife under the Act after the deed com menced to operate.