CLERK'S BANKRUPTCY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7851, 13 July 1911, Page 1

CLERK'S BANKRUPTCY

PETITION FOR ANNULMENT FEW DEBTS AND .£355 A YEAR. A oaso presenting some very unusual features wps heard in the Supremo Court yesterday by tho Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, sitting iu Banco. It arose out of tho bankruptcy of Robert James Aekins, a clerk in tho service of tho Government, and it camo before tho court through au application by Margaret Aekins, wife, of the bankrupt, to annul tho bankruptcy on tho ground that the action of the bankrupt in filing the petition was an abuse of the process of the Court.

.Mr G. Samuel appeared for Mrs Aekins in support of the application, and Mr 11. lv. Evans for the* bankrupt.

Bankrupt, who is iilt.v-two years of age, has boon living apart since October, ISU9. A deed of separation was drawn and signed, by which bankrupt agreed to pay Ids wife ,C 3 per week for the first year, and 10s per week thereafter, for_ tho maintenance of herself and the tour children of tho marriage. Ho never i paid raoro than £2 per week. and she recently succeeded in a claim tor arrears at the higher rate. Tho husband did not pay, and a judgment summons was issued against him, whereupon ho sought refuge in tho bankruptcy count. In his sworn statement to the Official Assignee ho said that there was a moral if not a legal agreement bv his wife to accept payment at a lower rate, and that he had never acquiesced in the higher demand, lie had also understood, he said, that tho amount sould be subject to adjustment by reduction as tho children came of ago. At the lime when tho deed of separation was executed Aekins was in receipt of a salary of <£2oo I'or year, but no now receives .£355 per year, subject to a deduction of six per cent, as his contribution to the superannuation fund. Three of tho children are grown up,.and all self-supporting with tho exception of perhaps one, a youth of seventeen years, who is in receipt of <£l 2s 6d per week. When the children were growing up Airs Aekins added to her allowance by keeping boarders, but this occupation she had to give up owing to failing health. At present she lives with her eldest son, who is in good employment. In the course of one of his affidavits sworn in connection with tho case, bankrupt stated that he feared he might havo to retire from the Government service in two or throe years, and that his superannuation allowance would be about <£lso. It was also alleged by Airs Aekins that when her husband filed a debtor’s petition in bankruptcy, that the only debts disclosed by him to the Official Assignee other than under the agreement were for £ls 2s Ipd owed to two firms of solicitors as costsl Concerning tho debts owing to her Airs Aekins elated that bankrupt had not paid to her the unpaid balance, £lO 2s, of the judgment which sho ob-, taiued against him. and that he had refused to pay her any sums at all since April Ist, 1011, because sho would not accept payment at the rate .of .£2 per week. ,

After’hearing counsel, 1 his Honor said '■hat he would deliver judgment at 10 a.m. io-day.