COMPANY LAW.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20480, 5 December 1934, Page 13

COMPANY LAW.

Unique Action Heard in Supreme Court.

A case heard before Mr Justice Johnston in the Stipreme Court yesterday was described as unique in the history of company law in New Zealand. The Official Assignee, as liquidator of a company, brought a motion seeking an order requiring two directors of the company to pav him sums totalling £6Ol 11s, £3BO of which, it was alleged, had been taken with intent to defraud creditors, and the remainder incurred as debts when the company was insolvent. Judgment was reserved. Notice of Motion. The notice of motion asked that Frank Henry Albert Dodge and Corrie Redvers Dodge, both of Chrietchurch, builders, should be ordered to pay the sums of £IBO, £2OO and £221 11s to James Hope Robertson, Official Assignee, as liquidator of Dodge Brothers, Ltd. Tt was set out in the notice that the £IBO was drawn by F. H. A. Dodge for his own use from the company’s banking account; that the £2OO was the value of a cheque paid by the company through F. 11. A. Dodge to a brother, C. W. F. Dodge; and that the third sum was the amount of debts contracted by the company between July 31, 1932, and November 8, 1932. Tt was submitted that the first two payments represented undue preference, given with intent to defraud certain creditors, that the debts represented by the third sum were incurred when there was no reasonable or probable expectation of payment being made; and that the acts had in fact prejudiced the creditors of the company. Mr Lasceltes appeared in support of thw motion; Mr M. J. Gresson, and with him Mr Burns, opposed it.