DISPUTE OVER £269 CHEQUE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 16

DISPUTE OVER £269 CHEQUE

Decision Reserved A dispute over the ownership of a cheque for £269 7s lOd. proceeds from the sale of stock by Theodoras Everardus Jurrius. a farmer, shortly before he filed a petition for bankruptcy, was heard before Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday. Claimants to the money, in an action by way of interpleader summons are the Official Assignee (Mr O. T. Grattan) for whom Mr J. G. Leggat appeared, and Joan Millow, the then fiancee of Jurrius and now Joan Jurrius. his wife, for whom Mr J. N. Matson appeared. In a previous hearing of the dispute, his Honour had found, as a fact, that at the time of the sale of stock by Jurrius, the stock was owned by Joan Millow and that, Srima facie, she was entitled > the money. The cheque for the stock, bought by a stock and station agency firm, on April 16. 1959. was made out to Joan Millow on the direction of Jurrius, On April 20, 1959, Jurrius filed a petition for bankruptcy. The cheque had not been cashed and it was seized by a bailiff acting for the Sheriff as part of Jurrius’s estate in bankruptcy, said Mr Leggat. He submitted that, even though the Court held that the stock had belonged to Joan Millow, the Official Assignee was entitled to the (roceeds of its sale under secion 61 of the Bankruptcy Act because the stock was in the possession, order, or disposition of Jurrius with the consent of Joan Millow in circumstances constituting Jurrius as the reputed owner of the stock. The proceeds were therefore part of Jurrius’s estate in bankruptcy, and properly the property of the Official Assignee. Mr Matson submitted that Jurrius was not the reputed owner of the stock in that he did not have it for sale with the consent of Joan Millow Therefore, the proceeds from the sale of the stock were legally the property of Joan Millow. now Mrs Jurrius. His Honour reserved his decision.