JUDGMENT SUMMONS SYSTEM

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 820, 18 May 1910, Page 2

JUDGMENT SUMMONS SYSTEM

CKEDITORS AGAINST DEBTORS. A PEE-PLEXING SUBJECT. The judgment summons problem whicK has to be faced by the presiding magistrate at the S.M. Court on civil days was referred to again yesterday by Mr. W. R Haselden, S.M. His Worship said this mutter of judgment summonses : was one he could wish the Law Society to take,up. For his part he would be ■' willing to meet members of the society, and hear their views on this very perplexing subject, and see if some practical '■• way of dealing with the difficulty could !'«' ue arrived at. At the present time the problem was to him unsolvable. How, he asked, could a man get 20s. in the ,£1 it the debtor had not got the money? It was not necessary to go to tho seniors . of the profession if they who practised in tins Court could meet and see if something could not be done. He (the magistrate) wanted to do what was-right, and solicitors naturally wanted to do what they could for . their clients. Solicitors came at the Court one after another asking that orders for imprisonment should be mada. Referring to the particular case which gave rise to the remarks, an application for an order against, a . defendant who had got into arrears with interest payments.in a certain property transaction, having already lost his prin- . eipal, his Worship said that if it had : been shown that the account was a trade ' account, grocers' account, or almost anything, else, he would have been inclined to make an order. It-was, however, hopeless making an order under the edrcuni-stancf-s.. Turnins to counsel for the judg- ' ment creditor, his Worship'said: "You . ask that,.this.,man (the.debtor) should be sent to prison." In answer counsel said: "Ko, your Worship; I ask that he should be ordered to pay, because he has the mcansto pay." Speaking to. the debtor, his' Worship said there. a'ppear'ed to be nothing for the debtor to do lint to go bankrupt. He could not go on living with a threat of imprisonment over his head, and a knowledge that he could not . pay the debt. "I know I will suffer." concluded his Worship resignedly. "I will have to snlTer misrepresentation on all sides." Eventually the case in question was adjourned for u month to see if anything could be done in the way . uf realising on debtor's' property—three houses on which there- was a mortgage nud a second mortgage.