SON'S SEVERE ACTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 15

SON'S SEVERE ACTION

MOTHER MADE BANKRUPT

SEQUEL TO FAMILY DISPUTE

"It seems a dreadful thing," said the Chief Justice, Sir James Blair, when Walter Charles Clifford, carter, applied in the Brisbane Supreme Court recently for a sequestration order against the estate of his mother, Lena Elizabeth Clifford. The ajnount of the debt was £556.

Mr. P. E. Copley, counsel for the son, said that both he and the solicitor had had misgivings about accepting the case. The Chief Justice:, The petitioner is actually making his mother bankrupt. Mr. Copley said he recognised that it was very undesirable for a son to take such action against his mother. The petitioner had advanced the money to give the mother a home, but other members of the family were receiving bc-nefits from his generosity to which he considered they' were not entitled. The Chief Justice: Then it is a family feud? /' Mr. Copley said it was more than that. The mother was originally prepared to sign a mortgage, but she had not done so. The Chief Justice: Was the £556 lent Unsecured in one sum? Mr. Copley: Yes, to pay a deposit on the home ajid to pay other debts for the mother at the time. In granting the sequestration order, the Chief Justice said: "I have to do my duty under the Bankruptcy Act, but I urge the son to avoid if possible taking extrertie or drastic action on this order."