AUCKLAND APPEAL CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9075, 8 June 1888, Page 5

AUCKLAND APPEAL CASE.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Thursday. In the Appeal Court to-day, before Judges Richmond, Williams, and Ward, the case of the claim of tho Official Assignee in the estate of Samuel Jackson, jun., against Hall, solicitor, of Wellington, was taken. Mr. Justice Gillies decided in Auckland in April last that Hall was not entitled to set-off a sura of £83 19s 3d, being costs received by him as agent for tho bankrupt solicitor, who was then practising in Auckland, against a sum of £110 due by Jackson to Hall, by reason of the fact of the relating back clause of the Bankruptcy Act, the £83 lis 3d having been received since the committing of an act of bankruptcy, and the act of bankruptcy being secret was held to have made no difference. Mr. Quick appeared for the appellant, and argued that the case fell within the set-off section ; that that section required a judicial decision as to where the line should be drawn, and that the English cases decided that it should not be drawn until the creditor had notice of the act of bankruptcy, and that by the wording of the set-off section itself the line should not be drawn until adjudication, up to which time the appellant was indebted to the bankrupt and not to the assignee. Mr. Theo. Cooper, for the Official Assignee, argued that the line should be drawn at the commencement of the bankruptcy, which by the relating back clause is fixed at the committal of the first act of bankruptcy within twelve months prior to adjudication. Their Honors reserved judgment.