OLD RENT ACT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 204, 29 July 1932, Page 6

OLD RENT ACT.

LANDLORD’S SUCCESSFUL CLAIM. LAW OF KING GEORGE H. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 28. On a claim based on the provision of the Distress for Rent Act of 1737, passed in the reign of King George 11., under a section described by Mr McNeil, S.M., as a “relic of the past,” James Dean Davidson, a landlord, succeeded in the Magistrate’s Court in establishing the right to obtain from a tenant, W. A. Hamilton, double the value of his furniture owing to the fact that Hamilton waa held to have removed it from Davidson’s house when he knew Davidson intended to seize it by way of a distress warrant for arrears of rent.

Mr McNeil, who heard the case, also held that in addition to the sum of £lB5, which was Davidson’s estimate of double the value of the furniture, Hamilton was apparently liable for arrears of rent amounting to £62. Although Mx; McNeil held that the plaintiff Davidson must succeed in his action, he reserved the matter of fixing the amount actually to be paid by the defendant, Hamilton, until the position had been discussed by the solicitors for both sides, and the defendant had had an opportunity of giving his estimate of the value of the furniture.

Mr McNeil said that he would like to hear argument as to whether or not both the rent and double the value could, under the circumstances, be claimed.