DIRECTORS DEMAND BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19133, 26 September 1925, Page 13

DIRECTORS DEMAND BOOKS.

DAIRY SECRETARY'S REFUSAL. COURT ORDER OBTAINED. [BY telegraph.—press association.] DANNEVIRKE, Friday. An unusual case was heard in the Magistrate's Court, when the Tamaki Dairy Company, the largest co-operative factory in southern Hawke's Bay, proceded against Clifford Harris Thompson, secretary, asking for an order directing him to deliver up the books and correspondence of the company and claiming £9O damages. Plaintiffs, alleged, that "defendant was a servant of the company. The directors were not satisfied with the first bal-ance-sheet of last year's operations, but were quite satisfied that any mistakes made were honest ones. They made arrangements for another audit and demanded the books of the company from defendant, whose services are-to terminate on September 30. When two directors and others went for the books Thompson declined to give them up, ordering the directors out of the office. It was alleged that later ho threatened that if any of the directors came to his office they would be thrown out. Thompson declined to hand over the books without a clearance and his counsel claimed that he was .justified in his attitude, as he was not a servant of the company, but a contractor and, as such, had a lien on the books until he was paid for the work he had performed and was given a clearance that everything was in order. The magistrate said it appeared that defendant and the company's directors had got at loggerheads, but that was no reason why defendant should refuse to hand over the books.'- Ke ordered that the books be handed over and assessed damages at £lO.