WAIRARAPA DISTRICT COURT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8373, 7 March 1907, Page 4

WAIRARAPA DISTRICT COURT.

RESERVED JUDGMENTS.

The Registrar of the District Court (Mr E. Rawson) delivered judgment yesterday on behalf of His Honor, District Judge Haselden, in two cases that were heard at the sitting of the Court in Masterton on « Thursday last.

The first case was the motion of the D.O.A. in the bankrupt estate of R. J. Hodgins for an order requesting the wife of the bankrupt to hand over a phaeton and other chattels, alleged to be the property of the bankrupt, to the D.O.A. on behalf of the creditors in the estate. His Honor,' in giving judgment, said that the order was sought on two grounds. The first was that the gift of the phaeton had been made by bankrupt to his wife in November, ISO 3, and that, though the bankrupt had filed his petition in bankruptcy in November, 1906 —five days after the statutory period of three years had expired—the bankruptcy dated back to April, 1906, when the bankrupt had assigned his property for the benefit of his creditors. The second ground was that the goods were in the order and disposition of the bankrupt at the date of his bankruptcy. His Honor held that the bankruptcy could not date back further than three months from the date of adjudication, and that the chattels were in the bona fide possession of the bankrupt's, wife, they having been purchased by the bankrupt with money realised by the sale of his wife's furniture in ' Woodville in the early part of 1903. The motion would be dismissed with costs amounting to £3 3s. Mr B. J. Dolan appeared for the D.0.A., in support of the motion, and Mr C. A. Pownall appeared for the bankrupt's wife.

The other judgment delivered was in connection with the bankrupt estate of G. C. L. Jensen. This, said his Honor, was a motion on behalf of bankrupt to have the Registrar's order of adjudication set aside on the grounds that the, petition had not been attested in proper form, or the affidavit duly made. It had also been contended that the act of bankruptcy relied upon in the petition had not been proved, and that when the bankrupt left Featherston for Hawke's Bay he had no intention of defeating his creditors. The Registrar had amended the petition and affidavit at the hearing, and that was sufficient in his Honor's opinion. The motion won!] be dismissed with costs amounting to £5 ss. Mr C. A. Pownall appeared for the bankrupt in support of the motion, and Mr B. J. Dolan, instructed by Mr J. W. Card, for the petitioning creditor (Mr E. H. Saunders, of Featherstoo).