AN UNUSUAL CLAIM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17691, 28 January 1921, Page 6

AN UNUSUAL CLAIM.

ACTION FOR MESNE PROFITS.

PvESPFXT TO A BOARDING HOUSE.

What was described by defending counsel as " an ingenious device to evade the provisions ot the War Regulations Act,' was a claim for mesne profits on the tenancy of a boarding bouse in Manukau Road, made by Mary Catherine Sealy (Mr. Hutchison), against the owner, James Henry (Mr. Inder), the occupier, before Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. The profits claimed amounted to £35, assessed at the rate of 10s a day since November Id.

Mr. Inder Submitted that the claim for profits had been made by plaintiff in substitution for a demand for increased Tent, which might have been difficult to obtain. The War Regulations provided that £8 days' notice must be given of an increase in rent, and defendant, a returned soldier, would have contested this. Counsel also complained that insufficient evidence as to the capita] value of the premises had been given, bo that it was impossible to decide whether an increased rental would be jUßhfied. He added that plaintiff was probably the first house-owner in New Zealand to put forward such aa ingenious claim. ° The magistrate said that if counsel's statement of the position were correct the War Regulation* were evidently in respect to the rental of premises? onen fn evasion. * Decision was reserved.