CLAIM FOR £20,000

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21910, 20 September 1934, Page 14

CLAIM FOR £20,000

COMPANIES COMMISSION ACTION BY A SOLICITOR Damages of £20,000 are being claimed from the members of the Companies Promotion Commission, Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., Professor H. Belshaw and Mr. F. E. Graham, by Mr. Martin Heywood Hampson, barrister and solicitor, of Auckland. Papers relating to the claim were served in Wellington yesterday on Mr. Barton, chairman of the commission.

The statement of claim says that plaintiff was a director of New Zealand Redwood Forests, Limited, from September, 1929, until March, 1931. During that period he was a director and shareholder of Edgecumbe Forests, Limited, a company holding 3800 shares out of a capital of 4000 shares in Kotahi Lands, Limited, which was the registered proprietor of some 22,000 acres at Matahina, near Te Teko. On January 17 the defendants were appointed a commission to inquire into and report upon tendencies and developments apparent in the Dominion relevant to company promotion methods and otherwise Plaintiff claims that the commission is not a judicial tribunal. The statement continues that on August 28, 1934, the defendants presented a report recommending that, inter alia, Edgecumbe Forests, Limited, Kotahi Lands, Limited, and Overana Land Company, Limited, should be added to the schedule of the Companies (Special Investigation) Act, 1934. It is stated that Overana Land Company, Limited, is a private company, the shareholding being held solely by plaintiff and his wife, and that the concern was a shareholder in Edgecumbe Forests, Limited. In their report under the heading "Reconstruction scheme," the defendants made representations concerning a reconstruction scheme placed before debenture-holders in New Zealand Redwood Forests, Limited, and approved by them in 1930, which involved the acquisition by the Redwood Company of certain land from the Edgecumbe Company. It is held by plamtitt that the defendants were under a duty to him to take care that such representations were true and fair, and he alleges that in the exercise of their powers the defendants acted negligently. The statement of claim gives particulars of four paragraphs in the commission's report, and in respect of two of them it is alleged that the defendants knowingly omitted from their statement facts which were required to render thoir statements completely true. It is alleged that a third paragraph misrepresents the facts, and that a fourth is untrue. Plaintiff contends that the "negligence of the defendants as aforesaid has caused great damage" to his practice and reputation, and for that reason he claims damages and costs, and such further relief as the Court may decide.