SHARE TRANSACTION CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1923, Page 6

SHARE TRANSACTION CASE.

A MINOR'S LIABILITY. Judgment was delivered in Hawera by Mr. J. ;S. Barton, tg.M., in the case in which the Farmers’ Co-op. proceeded against R. G Muggeridge for balance of calls Unpaid. In the course of a written judgment his Worship said that defendant relied on the special defence of repudiation of a contract voidable through infancy. “The law is,” he added, “that an infant may be a member of a company, but his contract to take shares is voidable, and repudiation if made must be communicated to a company before he attains his majority or within reasonable time thereafter.” Defendant states that he gave an oral notification before he came of age, but that, his Worship considered, did not amount to a repudiation and was merely a notice that he relied on a defence of infancy. A written renouncement of the shares was given ten months after he attained his majority, during which time he received lepeated demands for payment of calls, but took no steps to repudiate. His Worship quoted authorities showing that a minor must give such notice within a reasonable time, and eanno‘ retain a right of repudiation over a period during which his rights on the contract appreciate or depreciate in value. He must exercise his right promptly or he would be deemed to have abandoned it. He was of opinion that defendant’s repudiation ten months after he attained his majority was too late to be effective, and therefore it was neither equitable nor, in his opinion, lawful that at the end of that period he could either repudiate or affirm his liability, according to his own interests. Judgment was therefore entered for plaintiff for the amount claimed.