PRACTITIONERS CHARGED

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1930, Page 9

PRACTITIONERS CHARGED

■ TRUST FUNDS' MISAPPLIED. ~';y ■" - ■ ’ ACTION BEFORE APPEAL COURT, By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The application of the New Zealand , Law Society:to have John Charles Carroll and John Ponsonby Somers, Te Aroha, barristers and solicitors, struck off the rolls, vm, heard by the Court of Appeal ■ this . afternoon. ;Mr. Von Haast, for 'the LaW Society, said the allegations against the practitioners were (1) that they failed to have their trust accoiint audited for the year ending March 31. 1929; (2) that between April, 1029, and July, 1930, they appropriated to various clients trust moneys belonging to other clients without tno letters’ consent; (3) between April, . 1920, and January, 1930, they improperly and without the consent of the administrator of a certain estate converted to ,their own use £495 held in trust for -that estate; (4) that they were generally unfitted for practise as barristers and solicitors on account of the above allegations, and on account ’ / of their, failure to reply to communications addressed to them by the Hamilton Law Society. Mr. Von Haast said Somers had filed an affidavit showing that since 1922 he had beep! a junior member of the firm and never at any time had taken any considerable interest in its affairs. He had. no knowledge f the matters complained of. ■ Counsel, however,, submitted it was quite obvious it was Somers’ • duty' to seer that the accounts were kept and' audited, and even more his duty after the firm had been fined for failure, to have its trust account audited to have ’ the books set right. For the whole of the following year after this fine proper entries wereuiot made in the cash book or. in the ledger. The charge of. failure to have their trust account audited for the year ending March 31, 1929, had been admitted and from affidavits filed it appeared that by misrepresentation and prevarication they obtained a longer and longer time for getting their books in order. Air. Von Haast said he did not know whether Spniere had had his attention drawn to letters written to the firm by the Law Society, but the practice was sold.by the firm in July, 1930. The next fact admitted was the failure to reply to letters from the Hamilton Law Society. Counsel alleged there had been deliberate falsehood in the firm’s ultimate reply to the Law Society and discrepancies in•' the majority of those sent. The cases were represented ae moneys improperly advanced to clients out of composite trust funds of others without their knowledge. The trust account had now been set right and a certificate to that effect filed with the Solicitor-General. The Court adjourned until to-morrow.