DEED OF SETTLEMENT

Southland Times, Issue 21771, 28 July 1932, Page 6

DEED OF SETTLEMENT

DECLARATION SOUGHT. BANKRUPT ESTATE. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, July 27, An application under the Bankruptcy Act concerning John Moug, a bankrupt, of Wellington, was heard by Mr Justice MacGregor in the Supreme Court to-day. The Official Assignee sought to have declared void as against him a deed of settlement dated March, 1931, and an authority in writing dated September 18, 1931, given by Moug for the maintenance of his child, Neta dune Moug, and involving sums of £750 and £lOO respectively, and asked that the trustees of David Wilson Virtue and Reginald Hardie Boys be ordered to make available the £B5O, or sufficient to pay the creditors 20/- in the £. The grounds of the application were that Moug was adjudged bankrupt on January 29, 1932, and that the two documents and the payment of the money were settlement of property void as against the Official Assignee under the Bankruptcy Act. Decision was reserved. During the hearing counsel fw Mrs Moug said that the trustees of the settlement would simply abide by the order of the Court. It had been conceded that there had been good faith on the part of Mrs Moug and the trustees. His Honour: What do you say the consideration was? Counsel submitted that Mrs Moug had given a valuable consideration by abandoning all maintenance proceedings in favour of the child, cancelling the existing maintenance order and for not taking out a charging order against the bank deposit under the Destitute Persons Act. An order could be made against a person who could be shown not to have adequately supported anyone for whose support he was responsible, but to the extent that the deed provided the child with adequate maintenance there could be no claim by the wife under the Act after the deed had commenced to operate.