DEFAULTING SOLICITORS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18830, 19 March 1931, Page 11

DEFAULTING SOLICITORS.

APPLICATION TO BE STRUCK OPT 1 ROLLS. By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 18. The Court of Appeal to-day dealt with the application of the New Zealand Law Society to have Ronald Bray Mason and Charles Ellis Waddingham both of Auckland, barristers and solicitors,, struck off the rolls of practising barristers and solicitors of the Dominion. Mr Von Haast, for the Law Society, said the application was based on the grounds that these practitioners failed to keep a separate trust account, and had done acts which amounted to misappropriation of trust moneys. They had failed to have their trust account audited, had made fictitious entries to mislead their auditors, had a shortage in the trust account, and had had cheques dishonoured on numerous occasions. Mr Singer, for the practitioners, said they had not deliberately failed to have their trust accounts audited. The practitioners had been in practice since the termination of the war, but latterly, through muddle and incompetence in book-keeping, had fallen into irregularities. There never had been a great shortage, and at present there was no deficiency. The Court reserved decision.