RECOVERING UNPAID RATES.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13653, 19 February 1913, Page 6

RECOVERING UNPAID RATES.

A WELLINGTON TEST CASE

MAY A LANDLORD BE SUM-

MONED?

L United Press Association . ]

Wellington, Feb. 18

A test case conberning rates was brought before Mr. Justice Chapmau at the Supreme Court this morning on a summons' removed-- from the Magistrate's Court. The plaintiff was the Wellington City Corporation, and the defendants were Hamilton Gilmer, M.L.C.; Allan Maguire, settler; John O'Kane, clerk; Charles Perrdn Skerret, K.C., solicitor; Mary Ann McArdle, settler—all of "Wellington. The defendants, it was set out in the statement of claim, are the owners of the Trocadero Private Hotel, upon' which,the sum of £30.13s lOd is due for electric heat, light, and power .supplied pursuant to the provisionsl of the Rating Act, 1908. The City Council on Ist Juno, 1912, demanded this amount, which, it was claimed?was recoverable as a separate rate from the owners of the property. The demand was not complied with, and an action to recover the amount was therefore brought by the Corporation. The defendants, for whom Sir John Findlay appeared, disputed the Corporation's right to recover the amount as a separate rate. Sir John Firidlaj stated that-the question'for the 7Court was: Is a municipal corporation which owns or vcontrols a gas or an electric light supply entitled to recover (under the Rating Act) from a landlord as a separate sate .the price of gas, or electrical energy consumed by a tenant for light, heat, or power when the tenant had failed to pay? Mr. O'Shea, the city solicitor, contended that- under the Municipal Corporations Act, and the Rating Act, the City Council possessed .the power to enforce this as. a-separate rate against the landlord, and the amount was recoverable in-the' same. way ag other rates.

Decision sras reserved