WIG AND GOWN.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 349, 15 August 1885, Page 11

WIG AND GOWN.

[Xkis column is intended to supply a want. There are some matters of legal information which are of special interest to many classes of the comnrnnity ; these will be supplied in this column. It is desirable that leading cases and decisions should be brought ■before the public in such a shapo that they can understand them ; this we purpose week by week to_ do in this column for our readers; Every English subject is supposed to Irnow the law, but most Englishmen are content to find it out through their lawyer, although the contentment hardly extends to paying the bill for the advice. In this column will be answered by competent authority any legal queries that may be sent us by o ar readers, so long as they are sufficiently concise to be dealt with in the space at our command. Thus we propose to make of this column the People's Complete Lawyer, embracing legal facts, legal gossip, and legal information on points of law useful to the public. i Our readers are invited to talre advantage of this column by sending any queries they may desire to have answered, AH questions that reach us by Tuesday morning will, if possible, be answered in the same week's issue! ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Anxious" (Wellington)' writes. — Kindly inform me whether I can sue my late employer for wages due, and owing under the following circumstances : — I was engaged as a draper's assistant at a fixed salary per a-eek, but haviDg given my employer offence, was dismissed at a moment's notice. » Three weeks' salary were due to me when I left, and this money my employer informed me I had forfeited by my conduct in disobeying his orders, which was the cause, he said, of my dismissal. Ou remonstrating with him, he said he would neTer pay me, and that I could not compel him to do so, a3 the agreement between us was only a verbal one. Will you please inform me whether I can recover the amount so unjustly withheld from nic ? [If you were dismissed for any serious misconduct, you can recover nothing on account of your dismissal without notice. If you were not to blame, you may recover a week's salary instead of notice. In any case, you are en- ' titled to the wages you had earned before the matter arose on account of which you were dismissed, and you can recover it by action in the KM. Court.] " W^M. " (Waitara) writes. — Will you kindly iiorm me through your valuable " Wig and Grown" column :— lf K. lends on mortgage to M. on a certain property £200, and M. linds that property has depreciated to such an extent that ho would have to give up this property, can K. come on any other property belonging to M. to make up any deficiency that may arise through depreciation ? Or if M. hands over this property in question, is he then clear of K. ? [If K. consents to take this property by conveyance from the person making the mortgage, it can be done, and the mortgagor will then be free. If K. will not do thi?, but sues the mortgagor for his money, he may sell the land, and if it does not realize the £200, he can still claim the balance and recover it out of any other property which he may have.] "Ati^uta" writes. — I see by your paper you undertake to answer questions of a legal character. I wish to avail myself of your offer :my case I will submit to you : — I go to work on a station owned by A. — his manager engages me. I stop there about three years, ■when this manager leaves, having had a row ■with A. This manager gives me no settlement. A. gets another manager, who engages me afresh, and gives me a differsnt wage ; he gives me several orders on A., which I get the ■ money for, but I leave, and there is £20 odd coming to me, and A. refuses to pay me, as he says I am indebted to him according to his first manager's books. He claims £40 from me according to his first manager's books— he says it is money the manager has paid away for me, and amounts he has paid me more than my salary came to. The first manager has been away from the district, and neither of us know where he is. Can A. claim the £40 from me ? And won't A. have to produce the first manager to verify his accounts ? Tour advice upon the above will oblige. [The books of account kept by A.'s manager are not of themselves evidence against you. It would be necessary, before you could be held liable, that the manager should be present and prove, not only the payments mentioned, but that he had your authority for making them on your account. If they were made for goods, on your account, your exceptance of the goods would prove his authority. *' Farmer" (Waikato) writes. — If my wife and myself separate by mutual consent, am I still lia'W to contribute towards her support after such. 1 ' separation take 3 place ? [In this case, you are not liable so long as the separation continues. But in ease your wife wishes to return, and yon refuse to support her in your own house, you will then become liable to support her elsewhere, and can be compelled by law to do so. The case of a wife leaving her home of her own accord, and refusing to live with her husband, is of course different.]