BANKRUPT'S WIFE SUED

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1932, Page 9

BANKRUPT'S WIFE SUED

MONEY SPENT pH HER LAND.

pawmient io assignee ordered.

That a bankrupt’s wife should show cause why she BhOuld not b‘e> ordered to pay to tlie official assignee the sum Of £629 2s Bd, being the amount expended by her hiisibahd oh laiid's Within two years prior to his being adjudged bankrupt, formed the basis of a case heard betfofe Mr. Justice Ostler in the Supreme Court, Napier, when the official assignee in the bankrupt estate of Percy Boyland sought, ujader section 76 of Ihe Bankruptcy Act, to recover certain moneys expended by the bankrupt.. In the course of his judgment His Honour said, it was an uneontested fact that within a year of his bankruptcy the bankrupt had incurred the expenditure df £731 I,ls 5d in erecting buildings bn land that was tfe. property of his wife, who owned two adjoining freehold sections at Greenmeadows and a leasehold section in Dickens Street, Napier.A temporaryshop and dwelling were erected bn the leasehold property afid a small cottage bn one of the freehold sections. The summons was Opposed oh the grounds that section 7“6 of the Bankruptcy Act had no application to leasehold lands,-but-His Honour held that the word “land,” as used in the section of tlie Act; meant Avery interest, in land and included leasehold. If this were not so a husband could expend moneys I on his wif&’s 999 years’ leasehold-inter-est and laugh at his creditors. In a further contention it was apparent both frOffi the terms of the lease and. from the fact that the buildings on the leasehold were merely temporary and must soon be removed, that the leasehold interest *waS practically ilhsaleaible. His HonOirr thbught silCh a construction Would defeat the. intention of the Act. His Honour ordered that the wife of the bankrupt pay. to tlie Official assignee the sum Of 2s Bd, aiid-.that there WOiild be a direction to. the assignee, that if there was failure, to Comply: With the order he should sell such lands ot part thereof as he thought fit and to convey or transfer the same to the purchaser.