TOKAANU ESTATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 18

TOKAANU ESTATE

OWNERSHIP QUESTION ■i INTERIM JUDGMENT REVISED HIS HONOR'S CONCLUSIONS A reserved judgment in the civil action concerning the ownership and management of the Tokaanu Hotel and a store and fishing lodges at Tokaanu was delivered by Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court yesterday. The case was originally heard by His Honor at Hamilton in February. The plaintiff was Mrs. Annie Jones, widow, of Tauranga (Mr. Cooney), as trustee in the estate of Robert Jones, formerly of Tokaanu, deceased, and the defendant was her brother, John Atirau Asher, storekeeper, of Tokaanu (Mr. Ongley). The estate in dispute was at one time worth £20,000. His Honor gave an interim judgment at Hamilton for the plaintiff to have possession and for accounts to be taken. Mr. Ongley applied for a new trial, or alternatively a variation of the judgment and for relief against forfeiture, and Mr. Cooney applied for further consideration. It was with these motions that the reserved judgment dealt yesterday. His Honor said that in the arithmetical calculations embodied in the interim judgment more rent was debited against the defendant than should have been debited at the appropriate date and the disallowance for commission should have be*n not £503, but only £472. These corrections being made it followed that' the order for possession embodied in the interim judgment was not justified. Regarding the items discussed in plaintiff's motion for further consideration His Honor stated that he had come to the conclusion that, pending the accounts already directed in the interim judgment, no further disallowances should be made against the defendant, and no credits should be allowed to the plaintiff. "It is not proper that judgment should at this stage go against the defendant on any matter as to which it is possible lie has an explanation which he has not yet put forward," continued His Honor. "Bearing that in mind, I do not find any matter beyond those dealt with in the interim judgment; to be as yet placed in such a state of clear demonstration as is necessary. 1 " His Honor added that during the argument of the motions he was asked by counsel for the defendant not to find finally against the defendant as to those disallowances already directed by the interim judgment. But all those matters had, he thought, been sufficiently investigated. He intended the disallowances to be final, and he adhered to that. No question of relief against forfeiture arose in the meantime.