IN BANKRUPTCY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 July 1923, Page 11

IN BANKRUPTCY.

I '<<%£»’ - ■ ! It. G. LAPLANCHE, ST. ANDREWS. j A meeting of creditors in tire bankrupt estate of R. 0. Laplanche, motor carrier and coal merchant, St. Andrews, was held in the office of the De-puty-Official Assignee at Timaru yesterday. Air F. A. Raymond (DeputyOfficial Assignee) presided, and there were present,—Bankrupt and his solicitor (Mr J. Emslie), Messrs A. Wilson (C.F.C.A.), R. L.'l’ugh, H. H. Kingham, A. DunueLt, D. AT. Petrie, Young Bros., and A. J. Baird, F. J. Sheed, and C. S. Curtis (Westport Coal Company). The bankrupt’s filed statement showed -Unsecured creditors £2lO Hs 9d; secured creditors £TO2I (less estimated value of securities £1120), surplus to contra £99. Stock in trade at St. Andrews £7O, book debts £2l lO.s, total assets £lB9. j

'J’h© unsecured credi tors were : Black Diamond Coal Company £7 9s Bd, Young Bros. £4 2s Bd, Booth Macdonald £0 18s 10d, A. Dnnnett £1 Is, Wallace and Cooper £24 5s fid, S.C. Engineering Co. £1 15s, E. A. Crawford £8 10s, .Sim and Sliced £l6 9s 4d, 1 C. Nicholas £l2 17s fid, J. Storrier £4 \ 2s 9d. A. Boulton Ids, M. L. Pugh £l4, j E. I). Hoskin £7, Para Rubber Co. ! £25 15s 2d, Raymond, Raymond and ; Campbell £3 13s, F. B. Hawkey £4 10s, Westport Coal Company £35, “Timaru Herald” Company £4 4s, South Canter- j bury Brick Works, Ltd., £2 10s, Me- j Skimming and Sons £9 Is 4d, M. W. I Keay £6 15s. | The secured creditors were: C.F.C.A. amount of debt £6OO, estimated value of security £600; Mrs Wood, amount of debt £320, estimated value of secur- I ity £550; H. H. Kingham, amount of debt £lOl, estimated value of security £2OO. The assets were shown as a section at St. Andrews, with garage thereon £200; section and house at St. Andrews £550: debts owing to the bankrupt £2l 10s 3d; oil engine £4O, bac lifter £8; bag fillers and shovels £22. a A letter Was received from bankrupt’s solicitor stating that the bankrupt owns two sections at St. Andrews, one with a o-roomed house on it, valued at £550, ‘subject to a first mortgage of £3OO to Mrs Wood, of Pleasant Point, and to a second mortgage to the C.F.C.A., to secure current account, and the other, with a garage and sheds thereon, valued at £2OO, subject to a first mortgage to the C.F.C.A., to secure current account, and collateral to the second mortgage on the first mentioned section, i Bankrupt owns a Maxwell car valued' : a ,t £2OO, on which he owes £lOl to Mr ■ H. H. Kingham. lie also has an Overi land motor lorry from the C.F.C.A., on a hire purchase agreement. In addition to the foregoing there are chattels to tho value of £7O. BANKRUPT’S STATEMENT. • In his sworn statement bankrupt said that' about six years ago he commenced j business at St. Andrews, as a carrier, jto which business later on he added. | dealing in coal. When he started he i had no capital, the horse and cart | which he had‘taken out from Timaru, ' being practically his only assets. He agreed to purchase a house and section at St. Andrews for £950. He. could 1 not pay a deposit, but agreed to pay i the purchase money by instalments. Ho ‘ did fairly well for tho first 24 years. ' Later he was advised to increase his

; business by going in for a motor lorry, ' and he bought a lorry in Christchurch, | for £250, paying £IOO down. He was : always in trouble with this lorry, and ! he had been compelled to put it aside

j and to no the work with horses. He j had bought two horses and an express, j but later on sold these and purchased I a Ford one-ton truck at a cost of nearly | £3OO. He paid £SO down and still I owed Mr H. H. Kingham £IOO on the ! security of his Maxwell car, which he

! took in lieu of liis security over the Ford truck. He then bought a second- ' hand Overland car from Collis and Co., of Waimate, for £IOO, intending to use i this for hire purposes. He paid £SO 1 down. As lie was always in trouble j with the car he gave it back to Collis I and Co., in part payment' lor a Max- } well car which lie bought from them for • £525, being allowed £IOO for the old Overland. He still had the old lorry, , which he had bought in Clifistchurch, and got Wallace and Cooper to put a new body on it at a cost of nearly £2OO. But the machine was a continued j source of worry, annoyance and ex- | pense. He then gave Collis and Co., the Ford one-ton truck for the balance ! owing on the Maxwell car, and gave | Mr Kingham a mortgage over the latter for the balance owing to him. He next got a Garford motor lorry from the Mount Cook Motor Company, for which he agreed to pay £BOO, giving the Mt. Cook Company the lorry which he had bought in Christchurch, as part payment. This lorry had cost him well ovor £4OO by this time, and lie -was allowed £2OO off the Garford for it. The Garford soon cost him £BO in repairs. Finally it took fire and lie got £l4O of the insurance money and the remains of the old lorry, which he sold to Sim and Sliced for £l3O, part i of which went to settle aii'_ account | which he owed them for repairs.- Just i before this lie had bought a secondhand Willey truck from the C.F.C.A., on a hire-purchase agreement. Tie paid a deposit of £IOO and gave p. n’s for the balance, but he could not meet the p. n’s as they fell duo. He spent about £2OO oil repairs to the bouse which lie had bought at St. Andrews, for £250. The house was destroyed j bv fire, and was insured lor £3OO. About £2OO of this was absorbed m paying off the purchase money. He received' about £IOO, and paid this as a deposit on 13* acres of land which lie bought for £BOO. He sold this property later for £1250. Ho put the profit into the house wlpcli he now occupied. Ho borrowed £3OO on the house property, and spent most of this on repairs to his motor lorrv and motor car until about eighteen months ago Ins business was paving, but lie, was unable t() save anv money owing to the continued heiivv cost of repairs to his car and lorries. About this time the coal merchants stopped his credit, and lie had to pay cash before he couM get any

coal This often meant that he had no coals when his customers required them, and his business fell away considerably He bad tried to sell the business. luit had failed to do so, and in the interest of his creditors he bad decided to file. Ho bad no money and was not in. a position to make any oilci. THE CROSS-EXAMINATION.

in reply to the Assignee bankrupt said that' up to about two years ago he had paid pretty well all his money into 'the Bank; after that he paid Ins money direct to his creditors. Ho kept books It would bo four or live mouths sinro ho bad first found that be could not nov 20s in the £. He had not culled his creditors together to explain his position, but ho bad endeavoured (o soli bis business in order to pay t,hem The host offer he received for iho business was i'rom a man who offered a deposit of ‘£3oo, but this was not enough to pay bis creditors, lie ‘took a beer” sometimes, when ho felt like it, but did not make a practice of going into hotels. Ho went to races occasionally, but did not play cards, and was not. n gambler. When ho disposed ol' his motor truck he did not know that he was disposing ot Mr Kingham’s security. He had given Mr Kiogham a cheque to square bis account, but it was dishonoured. His business at St. Andrews was a, medium one. The Maxwell motor was in iho H.E.C.A. garage. Mr Kinglmm m as the only one who had security over ; i. II: was worth about £2OO. The dolor lorry was nt St. Andrews, 'flic C.E.f’.A hold this as part of their .security.

i Mr Pugh said that ho had ottered | £385 for bankrupt’s house and $ acre section at St. Andrews. Bankrupt said lie would not accept this because it would not cover the ’• mortgage. The place had cost him i £550. He considered that lie could have done all right if he had had sufficient money to carry on tlio business, llis lorry was a constant source of expense, and ho could not find the money ,io pay for the repairs which it needed, i Mr Wilson asked the bankrupt how he discovered that he could not carry on? Bankrupt said ha discovered it ; through what his lorry cost him. i Mr Wilson .said that on September 5, 1922, bankrupt bad given iho C.F.C.A. a signed statement., stating • that he was worth £7OO, and lie put iiis own values on his assets. Bankrupt said that this was a complete statement of his affairs; it was written, at liis dictation, and was signed by him, ■ as correct, in the presence of a witness. The assignee, looking at iho bankrupt’s hank book, said that on the same date bankrupt bad paid £55 to a firm of solicitors to meet claims of creditors , who were pressing him. | Sir Wilson said that what, the crodii tors wanted to know was where the I £7OO surplus had gone, i The assignee said’ the position was 1 not very satisfactory. The estate would be realised straight away, and tlm validity of the various securities would he inquired into. If necessary the creditors would ho calk'd togolher again, j No motion being proposed the meetliuo. was adiou.uk:d smo