A BUSINESS FAILURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18942, 13 February 1925, Page 9

A BUSINESS FAILURE.

UNFOUNDED ACTION. ACCOUNTANTS VINDICATED. LONDON. Feb. 2. The case in which six brothers named Mitchell, London sanitary engineers, who built up a business worth £250,000, and who, in 1908, each received an income of from £IO,OOO to £12,000, brought an extraordinary action against W. B. Peat and Co., the famous firm of accountants, claiming that it showed negligence iu its financial advice, and thus reduced the Mitchells to penury in three and a-balf years, was concluded to-day. The Mitchells alleged that Sir Harry Peat admitted that his firm's method of reconstructing the company left the Mitchells too short of cash. Subsequently, after participating in the control of the company, Peats refused to sign a small cheque enabling de-benture-holders to appoint a receiver. This Peats denied. At the last day's proceedings John Mitchell, after stating that the entire fortune had been lost because of Peats' refusal to sign a cheque for 655, collapsed. To-day he gave his evidence while seated in an invalid's chair. The jury gave a verdict that the Statute of Limitations barred the action. Defendants were awarded costs. The Judge, in refusing a stay of execution, said that the action was one of the most preposterous and most unfounded ever brought into Court.