AN INTERESTING CASE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10409, 24 July 1912, Page 5

AN INTERESTING CASE.

. Per Press Association. W«lliugton, July 23. An action based upon Elizabethan law was finally decided by Mr Justice Cooper in a judgment delivered in the Snpreme Const to-day. The main point Involved in the case was whether where a voluntary settlement has been made with the effect of defeating creditors, the Court shall conclusively presume that such effect was intended. The parties to the action were WiPlam Brunei!!! (trading as W. and J. Staples, boot and shoe manufacturers) plaintiff, and Barbara Mary Anderson (formerly Cowan), wife of Alexander Anderson, building inspector, as settler and trustee under a deed of settlement from herself as settler to George Cowan, of Kimbolton, farmer, and the said Cowan as trustee, defendants. In May, 1908, Barbara Cowan gave to plaintiff » guarantee of payment for goods supplied or to be supplied to E. G. Kennedy, bootmaker, Feildiua. Relying on the guarantee, plaintiff supplied goods to the value of £lB4 9s 3d. Kennedy paid £35 5s 2d, and had since become bankrupt. On 25tb January, 1913,plaintiff obtained judgment against Mrs Anderson on the guarantee for £129 4s Id and costs £8 9s Bd. Mrs Anderson professed Inability to pay, and said she bad no property. In October, 1908, plaintiff alleged, the defendant (then Barbara Cowan) executed a voluntary settlement of the bnlk of in" trust as J[to the income to be paid her for the maiutenanoefof her children while infants, and on all attaining the age of twenty-one to be divided among them. That deed plaintiff alleged was intended to defeat defendant’? creditors, and it should therefore b& declared void. Defendants denied that the settlement was to delay or defraud the creditor. It was made on property which had accrued to Mrs Anderson from her first husband’s estate. In contemplation of a second marriage defendant made the 'settlement with the intention of securing her children in regard to the second marriage. His Honor previously decided that affection .was mot a sufficient consideration for the settlement, but be postponed his final decision pending receipt of some further information. Yesterday His Honor gave judgment for plaintiff, and directed that the trustees should assist in making the property available for satisfaction of the debt. The interests of the mortgagees were to he protected.