ALLEGED CONSPIRACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20116, 29 November 1928, Page 13

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY.

FIRM'S CLAIM FOR £2OOO.

TROUBLE OVER GUARANTEE.

JUDGE RESERVES DECISION

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHKISTCHURCH, Wednesday.

Addresses by counsel were heard to-day by Mr. Justice Adams in the claim by Dominion Motors for £2OOO against John Fleming, Cheviot, sheepfarmer, and his wife, Sarah Jane Fleming. Tho claim is for damages and concerns the signing of a guarantee for £2OOO for Georgo Wilcox, of Ashburton, motor dealer, who was recently sentenced to a term of imprisonment for obtaining credit while he was an undischarged bankrupt. Wilcox is tho scn-in-law of the defendants. Sir John Findlay and Mr. A. S. Nicholls appeared for the plaintiff company. Mr. J. H. Upham appeared for Fleming, and Mr. R. J. Loughnan for Mrs. Fleming. Mr. Loughnan said no conspiracy had been established. Tho only evidence of conspiracy was on threo points, tho opening of tho letters by Mrs. Fleming when they were addressed to a man, her silenco after signing tho guarantees up to May when her husband became awaro of it, aind her action in returning tho document after signing it—not to Mr. Nicholls, the firm's lawyer, but to Wilcox. Mrs. Fleming had completely vindicated herself from any allegation of fraud.

Sir John Findlay submitted legal argument in reply to Mr. Loughnan.

His Hono- said Sir John would have to prove that Mrs. Fleming's evidence was not genuine. Ho had been impressed with her evidence. Sir John Findlay said tho beginning of tho fraud was when Mrs. Fleming asked Wilcox whether her signature would do. "That would mean that she as her husband's agent signed without authority," said His Honor. "Sho knew, or should havo known, as an honest woman, that tho guarantee should have been signed by her husband," contended Sir John Findlay. "Her excuses is a poor one, and tho real truth is that, she did not want outsiders to know that sho had signed tho document." He submitted that the two persons who made the fraud possible were Mrs. Fleming and Wilcox, and in theso circumstances ho contended Mrs. Fleming was not tho innocent person sho would liko the Court to believe. Her inotivo was one of helping her ,own daughter through Wilcox. In reserving his judgment, His Honor said the impression ho had formed during tho evidence given by Mrs. Fleming had not been removed. "As tho case is of such importance, however, I will havo to consider tho evidence carefully and will givo my decision later," ho concluded.