SHARE TRANSACTION CASE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 8 June 1923, Page 7

SHARE TRANSACTION CASE.

A MINOR'S LIABILITY

Judgment was delivered yesterday by Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., in the case ' in which the Farmers' Co-op, proceeded against R. G. Muggeridge for balance of calls unpaid. In the course of a written judgment his Worship.said that defendant relied on the special defence of repudiation of a contract voidable through infancy. The law is, he added, that, an infant may be a member of a company, but his contract to take i shares is voidable, and repudiation if made must be communicated to a company before he attains his majority or within a reasonable time thereafter. Defendant states that he gave an oral notification before he came of age. but that, his Worship considered, did not amount to a repudiation and was meixv ly a notice that he relied on a defence of infancy. A written renouncement of the shares was given ten months after he attained his majority, during which time he received repeated demands for payment of calls, but took no steps to repudiate. His Worship quoted authorities showing that a minor must give such notice within a reasonable time, and cannot" retain a right of repudiation over a period during which his rights on the contract appreciate or depreciate in value. He must exercise his right promptly or he will be deemed to have abandoned it. He said he was of opinion that defendant's repudiation ten months I after he attained his majority was too | late to be effective, and therefore it wa rs neither equitable nor, in hi? opinion, lawful that at the end of thai period he could either repudiate qi affirm his liability, according to hy opinion, of what seemed best in hi: own interests. i Judgment was therefore entered fo plaintiff for the amount claimed.