BANKRUPT ESTATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21020, 8 May 1930, Page 3

BANKRUPT ESTATE.

ORDER OF DISCHARGE MADE. Mr Justice Kennedy delivered judgment in the Supreme Court yesterday morning in a case in which a bankrupt. Henry Ismay Moralee Koss, of Dunedin, builder, applied for his discharge. The application was supported by Mr J. N. Thompson and opposed by Mr W. L. Moore. His Honor’s judgment was as follows:—• The bankrupt filed his own petition in bankruptcy on October 21. 1929. Notice of his intention to apply for a discharge was advertised on April 10, 1930, and his application for discharge came before the court on May 2. Under the provisions of “The Bankruptcy Act, 1908,” a bankrupt is under an obligation to apply for his discharge within tour months of the date of adjudication (“The Bankruptcy Act, 1908,’ section _ 125, sub-section 3), so that this application is not premature, but, cm the contrary, is delayed. The bankrupt carried on business in Dunedin as a ventilating and heating engineer, and, latterly, owing to slackness m this class of business, he engaged in concrete constructional work. The results have shown that the bankrupt was an inventor without sufficient practical knowledge of costs and management to achieve success. Hie method was to purchase House properties and to renovate them in accordance with his particular ideas of construction. He incurred no fresh trade debts after October, 1928, but he built, upon Mages, tor a syndicate, a concrete House, according to a method expected to reduce the costs of construction. Creditors were induced to stay their hands by the expectation of success in this experiment, but it failed, and a payment hoped not forthcoming. The bankrupt estimated that his estate would show a surplus whereas it appears now that it un, mt rea Tii n ° ™ ore th™ 3s 8d in the pound. All preferential creditors have u’l fc was Btated a mim,°J c « d . lt t OM opposed the discharge, nut the official assignee did not so oppose bankrupt was not\examined as-to n!L i ' C , r or thl .Hg relating to his estate thp^nii llß ti'nnsactious or conduct, or as to bi! ®iiu? ed ca " Be of his inability to pay mfv>i de^tS ’ and > although certain statements were made at the bar. they were bv 4 „?L° r e ' b * y an y evidence obtained isn't*- “-Vi.fe.'rt.TC report of eouVt° n if SUch evi^ ence . as -is before the twV* i, , nofc K sai , fl that it appears tae bankrupt has been guilty of any frm« Ce + u Ullder the or that it appears, representations of'any creditor official assignee, that there is to behove that the. bankrupt has been guilty of any such offience. 1 Nor can it be said that the bankrupt has been guilty of misconduct or gross oeffH* pence in the conduct of his business. There tL eVl vllnf nf “ft UDdl i ly x high e9ti *nate of evfdonr the estate, and there is wV:fK, e that , credl ‘ors were induced to Wait by a representation that the buildavgailoXHPlerVmenxti.WoU,d e nable fund* to be but* hpvnm? r +H b x 0 R ayment of iheif debts! hut beyond that, there is nothing to indicate misconduct or gross negligence The honlsft that ther , e 'Y as s n te ntional disiVl fnr fl l CXpr ? fis!y disclaimed by couutx j the °PP°6ing creditors. no ,t a PPear, that the inof the public or of commercial be 1 refused U »rid *« at the - disc, ‘arg c should oe roiufied. and there is no reasonnhla prospect tliat the bankrupt will come into possession of funds or property which nf a xH»Vux de c ava dable for the payment ot the debts of the bankrupt if he is required. as a condition of 8 difkarge to consent to a judgment. g ’ discharge, then, should, in mv “Pin"™. be granted, thus fulfilling the alltJon of the Legislature in banUrnSf Ptcy - , Aets —namely, that the S .x pt ’ T TOS U P the whole of his Ptoperty. should be a free man again able to earn his livelihood and having * P indUßtry i hia discharge, the S P U B still bound by law to give such assistance > as the official assignee or d strCfln e^ ires I. 1 " / h ts reali3at '«n and sis'" is