WARD v. NATIONAL BANK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1159, 16 May 1884, Page 3

WARD v. NATIONAL BANK.

,(Timaru Herald,) > . , The law is a wonderful and a comical thing. The more we contemplate it, the more profound is our admiration and respect for it. A delightful illustration of its beautiful simp’ifcity has just occurred. Some years ago, we for. et exactly when, but it seems to have bren quite m the dim and distant past,) aibqsxness man at Timaru, named John King, had an overdiaft at his bank—he National—a circumstance in .which, at that time, he was by no, means peculiar. In the course of his affairs he found himself subjected to thst unpleasant pi'ooess which . the most tenner-hearted bankers sometimes find themselves comipelled to. resort to in order to secure an equitable division of profits between their shareholders and their customers. He was pressed to pay, off, his overdraft or to offer security for- it. He selected the latter ‘alternative, and got Judge Ward amongst others to guarantee the overdraft to the extent of LUIOO. Then he came to unutterable grief, and presently vanished from the scene. The Bank applied to Judge Ward for payment of the LIOOO, with interest ; but he, after sundry negotiations, refuse i to pay first the interest; and then the principal, on the round that his coguarantors had been released without his consent, and that his guarantee had become null and void. On this issue the Bank sued Judge Ward in the Supreme Court; but when the case came on no evidence was called, and the Bank consented to a verdict for the defendant on the facts, and decided to apply to the Court of Appeal for a judgment on the law, non odstante veredicto. That is to say, they asked the Court of Appeal to declare that, admi ring all the facts alleged by Judge Ward, the Bank were still entitled to the LIOOO. The Court of Appeal decided that it was so. Judge Ward appealed to the Privy Council, and, after about six months’ delay, the Privy Council upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal. Judge Ward took no notice of this decision, and eventually the Bank sued him again in the Supreme Court at Timaru for the amount of his guarantee, wi f -h interest and costs. This time a sort of compromise was arrived at. Tne costs were divided, the claim to interest was nbam),oued, and it was agree 1 that the LIOOO should be deposited by Judge Ward at interest, pending a new trial at i.’unediu, in which the bonajides of the Bank in accepting the guarantee in the first instinqe wato b investigated. If the Bank won the case they were to bag the LIOOO with interest to date. If Judg. Ward won it, then he was to take back his deposit with interest, a»d the Bank were to be se it empty away. The trial came on ou Weilnes lay, and Judge Ward got a verdict on all the issues. He therein e scoops iu his original LlOOb with inter as r. and costs ; and all the litigation which has been going ou for years past is absolutely thrown away.