PLASTERERS’ BANKRUPTCY

Evening Star, Issue 23384, 29 September 1939, Page 12

PLASTERERS’ BANKRUPTCY

MEETING OF CREDITORS A meeting of creditors in the estates of Claude Herbert Wilson and George Frederick Stevenson, of Dunedin, trading in partnership as plasterers, and of the same two individually, was held yesterday afternoon before the official assignee (Mr J. M, Adam). The liabilities of the firm were set down at £547 Os Bd. and the assets at £l2O. The ’ principal unsecured creditors were : Silvorstone Joinery Factory, £55 18s 2d; Winstone Ltd., £l5O Os 4d; W. Murdoch, £65; D. Silverstone, £35; Solomon, Gascoigne, Solomon, and Sinclair, £36 Os lOd; and Arthur Ellis and Co. Ltd., £3l 17s. In the individual estates, apart from the partnership, the liabilities in the case of George Frederick Stevenson were stated at £ls, and the liabilities at £47. In that of Claude Herbert Wilson, the liabilities were stated at £45 10s 7d, and the assets'at £25, the principal unsecured creditor being the Perpetual Trustees Estate and Agency Company, £lB Bs, In their joint statement bankrupts said that they had entered into partnership shortly after March, 1933, to carry on the business previously carried on by Mr Wilson. Mr Stevenson put no capital in but Mr Wilson put in hia plant. There were debts then owing by the latter of which Mr Stevenson was unaware. The two were to share the profits and losses equally. Mr D. Silverstone kept the partnership books and looked after the affairs of the business generally until June, 1939, except for a period between November, 1938, and January, 1939, when the partners kept the books themselves. On June 3. 1939, they decided to dissolve partnership, and an attempt to 1 form -a company to pay off their liabilities and to get finance to carry on failed, and Mr Wilson went out of the business. Neither of the bankrupts knew anything about bookkeeping, this being left to Mr Silverstone, who, during the period he was looking after the books, supplied monthly statements of the receipts and payments, but no statements were received from him showing what liabilities Were outstanding. Bankrupts, the statement went on, were not aware of the actual extent of their liabilities until recently, when the matter came to a head owing to a threat by one of the creditors. Mr Wilson was a married man with three young children, and drew £5 10s a week from the business, and Mr Stevenson, who was married with two children, drew a similar amount. The . former -was at present out of work, and the latter was working at a wage of £5 10s a week: The decision to dissolve the partnership was made in view of the financial position, the firm being pressed for payment, one of the creditors taking judgment against them. The plant was purchased for £175 by the Otago Finance and Agency Coy. Ltd., and the moneys paid to Messrs Neill, Boss, and Meade, solicitors, but the landlord of the premises where tho_ business had been carried on levied a distress for rent and £32 7s had to be pqid. The bankrupts attributed the non-success of their venture to their lack of capital, which on occasions resulted in their being unable to obtain supplies as required. Considerable questioning by counsel representing certain of the creditors revealed that bankrupts had carried on without knowing what their position was so far as debts were concerned. They had thought that, in working seven days a week, they must be doing all right, but neglect to ascertain the exact position had left matters in a somewhat confused state. Mr Silverstone, it was stated, had at times advanced money to bankrupts for payment of wages, recouping himself from accounts paid to the latter. The matter was left in the hands of the official assignee.