WOMAN PAYS DEBTS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1933, Page 2

WOMAN PAYS DEBTS

FORTUNE, GAINED BY A PATENT,

The story of a woman’s resolve to discharge her debts and how she earned a fortune from a patent was told at Cardiff County Court recently, ■when Mrs Rex Durand, now living in Paris, applied for her discharge in bankruptcy. Mr Temple Morris (for debtor) s aid that she was first adjudged bankrupt in September, 1902, the deficiency being ,£822. She was then trading as 'R. Powell and Company, general dealers, at Cardiff, but sh e left the district itn 1912 after her husband djed. Late r she married an American citizen, named Court land Eugene Durand, and in 1920 another receiving order in bankruptcy wag made against debtor. She was then t r admg under the style of Rex Durand. ‘She wag again adjudged bankrupt. 'Her preliminary examination in the London Bankruptcy Court having been concluded she went- to Paris, where s'hn now resided in the Boulevard du Montparnasse. , In Paris she mot a French inventor, Louis Dnfay, with whom' she entered into a joint venture relating to certain processes in respect of colour photography. She enlisted the .interest of certain ppople in England in the invention, which was eventually patented all over th e world as the Dufay Colour Patents. Debtor had worked with the sole object of discharging in full the claims oY all the creditors, who had now be P n paid in full. In November, 1951, the Official Receiver in the London bankruptcy intervened -and claimed the whole of debtors’ interests in the patents and j processes. He was paid a sum of £B,OOO, which was sufficient to discharge the claims in the Cardiff and London bankruptcies. The Official Receiver of Cardiff «aid that he had received £822 in respect of the Cardiff bankruptcy, together; with a further sum of £1,230, sufficient to pav full interest for 1902 to 1920, am® aP costs. judge C. C- Thomas granted the discharge, whereupon Mr 'Temple Morris

said that a similar application could novr be inacl e in London in respect of the bankruptcy there.