A VICTORIAN INSOLVENCY CASE.
HOW LAND SPECULATING ENDED. Judge Moleswokth gave his reserved decision in the Court of Insolvency a few days ago regarding the applications of William James Hunting and William Thomas Wright for certificates of discharge from their debts and a dispensation with bho requirement that they should pay 7s in the pound. His Honor said that the insolvents, carrying on business as accountants and estate agents in Collins-street, sequestrated their estates on the 15th February, 1889. Their joint schedule was tiled on the 12th April, 1889, and showed debts due on mortgage, £25,933 14s lid due to creditors otherwise secured, £312,790 8s 7d ; unsecured creditors, £45,999 IGs 8d ; total liabilities, £384,724 0s 2d. Their assets were made up of £143,659 9s Bd, real estate: £200,720 4s 7d, personal property not; held as security ; and £285,367 14s 5d good debts; total, £448,947 as Bd. There was thus a surplus on paper of £04, 8s 6d. The private schedule of W. J. Hunting showed £5509 9s 9d liabilities and £6004 Is Id assets, leaving a paper surplus of £434 lis id. The private schedule of W. T. Wright showed £48,966 .'ss 9d liabilities and £57,032 16s 2d assets, leaving a paper surplus of £8066 12s sd. It was contended by Mr. Braham and Mr. Cohen for the insolvents that they were entitled to conditional certificates as a matter of right, and furthermore that they ought to be accorded a dispensation with the requirement to pay 7s in the pound. So far as His. Honor could gather from the evidence before him, no dividend had been or would be paid to the unsecured creditors in either the joint or tho separate estates. Before the insolvents could obtain the ad vantage of certificates of discharge from their debts, withoutthepaymontofadividend,fcheymust show that their inability to pay7s in the pound had arisen from circumstances for which they could not, in the opinion of the Court, be justly held responsible. Tho onus of proof lay on the insolvents, and the duty of determining the question was imposed upon the court, whether the insolvents' applications were opposed or not. Beyond the statements of the insolvents upon affidavit, there was no evidence of any disinterested witnesses before the court. It was quite cansistent with those affidavits that the insolvents had started in August, 1886, buying land to the extent of £300,000 without any capital. His Honor found as a fact that the insolvents started buying land on credit without any means of paying for the samo unless by a resale immediately. His finding was that they had been dealing in a gambling way with land and shares in companies. Their estate had not paid a dividend of 7s, not because of some unusual misfortune, but because the insolvents having no capital, indulged in excessive gambling in land, their only chance of paying being a successful resale. Neither of the insolvents had proved to the satisfaction of the court that their failure to pay 7s in the pound had arisen out of circumstances for which they could not justly be held responsible. Certificates of discharge from their debts were granted conditionally on their paying the statutory dividend of 7s in the pound.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8267, 28 May 1890, Page 6
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535A VICTORIAN INSOLVENCY CASE. New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8267, 28 May 1890, Page 6
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