LANDLORD AND HIS RENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19260, 26 August 1924, Page 8

LANDLORD AND HIS RENT.

JUDGE EXPRESSES CONTEMPT. PAYMENT IN 325 YEARS. Scathin'? comments were made by Judge Herbort-Smith at the Norwich County Court recently in a case in which Alfred Brewster sued James Cecil Martin for £l6 ss, as 13 weeks' rent of a house. Mr Keefe, Martin’s solicitor, pointed out the rent before the war was £l6 a year, and now it was £65. The owner quadrupled the rent immediately the house was decontrolled. Martin, an ex-service man, said that he commuted his pension to take a hotel, which was not a success. He took the house because he had simply to pet somewhere to go. He paid 13 weeks' rent in advance. Unfortunately, under the agreement, said the judge, “ Mr Brewster is entitled to his full pound of flesh, the money and the costs, hut, very fortunately, I have power to say in what manner it shall be paid; and. to show my contempt of the plaintiff and all his doings. I order that the amount of the debt and costs be paid at the rate of one penny a month.”' Thus it will take over 325 years for the sum to be paid.