SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1440, 5 October 1899, Page 38

SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT.

- - - -«■ — The Chief Justice yesterday gave judgment in the_case Of Sinclair Bros. v. Matenga te Hiko and Wall. In this cage the plaintiffs verbally contracted with le Hiko for the purchase of 120 acres of land in the Paikakariki Survey District. In pursuance of such z _ -eement the defendant executed a memorandum of transfer on the 28th May, 1897. The purchase money was £222, and of this sum he had received £63 on the Ist December, 189/. Since that date £lO had been paid to him. On the date when the transfer was signed Te Hiko signed a consent in writing that the balance of the purchase money (£160) should be paid to Messrs Skerrett and Wylie, solicitors, "as being agents until the transaction is completed." Te Hiko verbally agreed with Reginald Wall for the sale to him of the same parcel of land, and, in pursuance of such agreement, he executed a transfer on the sth November, 1898. The purchase money was £3oo.From letters forwarded by the defendant's solicitor to the Judge of the Native Land Court, His Honor assumed that the whole of the sum had not been actually paid over to Te Hiko. Part was apparently held by the purchaser's solicitor. His Honor'gave judgment for the plaintiffs; ordering (1) That an injunction do issue to the defendant Wall, preventing him from registering his transfer until the further order of the Court; (2) that the defendant Te Hiko perform his contract, and that he accept the payment of the balance due to him. If he failed to do so then it was to be paid as the Native Land Court might direct; (3) that the defendant pav the plaintiff's costs of this action, with disbursements and witnesses expenses, and £7 7s for second day, had to be paid by each defendant.