MORTGAGORS' RELIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21114, 23 February 1932, Page 11

MORTGAGORS' RELIEF.

POINT OF INTERPRETATION.

AN APPLICATION REFUSED. SUPREME COURT RULING. An important question of interpretation of the Mortgagors Relief Act, 1931, has been decided by Mr. Justice Smith in a judgment issued by him yesterday. The matter before him was an application by Archibald Cameron, of Pukekawa, near Tuakau, farmer, as mortgagor, for an order reducing to such rate as the Court thought fit the rate of interest payable under the mortgage, and remitting in whole or in part any arrears of interest which might have accrued before the date of such order. The applicant admitted that no notice had been given bv the mortgagee, Frederick William Cox, of Mount Eden, to the mortgagor pursuant, to section 5 of she principal Act. " An important question of law at onco arises upon this application, namely, whether a mortgagor can make such an originating application to the Court, said His Honor. "If be can, then every mortgagor of farming land in the Dominion, under a mortgage to which the Act applies, can make application to the Court for a. reduction of interest, notwithstanding that the mortgagee has gi\ en no notice of his intention to do any of the acts referred to in section 4 of the principal Act." After examining the provisions of the Act-, His Honor said that, by section 4 of the principal Act it was made unlawful for a mortgagee to do certain acts which he could otherwise quite lawfully do but for the statute. Section 4 thereby gave an initial protection to all mortgagors to whom the statute applied. They were entitled to rest, under that protection unless the mortgagee gave notice of his intention to do the acts which he was otherwise prevented from doing. If the mortgagee gave that notice, then the mortgagor might apply for relief and the Court was then interposed between the parties. Until that time, the Court had no function or standing between mortgagor and mortgagee in relation to the granting of relief under the Act. As there had been no such notice given by the mortgagee in the present case the Court had no jurisdiction to entertain this originating application by the mortgagor for a reduction of his interest under section 7 of the Amending Act. The application must b e dismissed.