SOLICITOR SUED
A CONFESSION FILED. . ALLEGATIONS DENIED. 'WELLINGTON, November 20. Proceedings of an unusual nature were brought in the Supreme Court to-day, when Thomas Henry Meadows, an agent, sued William Percy Holings, a solicitor, for £364. Although Soilings consented to judgment being given against him for the amount claimed, lie denied an allegation in the statement of claim that'he had been guilty of fraudulent conversion. Mr A. L. Hollings, stating that the solicitor who was acting for the defendant, W. P. Hollings, was unable to appear, asked for an adjournment. He said a confession bad been filed for the amount chimed, and *t was submitted that judgment should be entered by confession. Mr W. E. Leicester, for the plaintiff, said his client desired evidence to he taken in support of the contention in the statement of claim that the money clue was the result of a fraudulent conversion on the part of the defendant. Negotiations before the issue of the writ had made it j clear that defendant was unable to meet' the claim. A demand had been made on the New Zealand Law Society for payment of the money, it being alleged that the loss had been j sustained by plaintiff, througu fraudu- j ] 3 rt conversion on the part of the defendant. The Law Society had taken up the attitude that it was unable to recognise the claim unless, this alegation was established. Mr Leicester stated that steps had been taken to inform the defendant | and his solicitor that the case would j be taken to-day. Mr A. L. Hollings suggested that j plaintiff had no right to use-the civil j court to deal with some allegations
in the statement of claim. Mr-Leicester intimated that plaintiff would not accept judgment with- j } out evidence being heard. | The court adjourned to enable counsel to discuss the .matter. When J it resumed, Mr A. L. Hollings, stating J that he had appeared solely for the purpose of asking for an adjournment ret’ ced from the. case. Mr Justice MacGregor said the case would have to go on. Defendant’s solicitor had not seen fit to appear and explain the position. Addressing the court defendant said he had been engaged in a laig-e mining transaction in Central Otago. Until he received notice that the case was proceeding to-day, be had thought that the ■ -matter had beenleft in abeyance until he could get sufficient money to pay the plaintiff. Defendant 1 said he welcomed the opportunity of having the matter ventilated. He denied that he had been guilty of theft as alleged in the statement of claim; Mr Leicester said that W. P. Hol- : lings, as personal solicitor for Meadows, had invested money of anything no to £7OOO on behalf of Mr and Mrs Meadows. It was alleged, that in the transactions defendant had borrowed money from Mead on s and subsequently, submortgaged a property lie bad given to Meadows as security. Meadows gave evidence that all his business dealings with the firm of Hollings and Hollings had been carI ried out through Mr W. P. Hollings, j who retired from the firm in Oc'tober, 1932. Mr A. L. Hollings had nothing to do. with any of his business. His Honour said the only reasonable explanation of the affairs in disnute was that given bv plaintiff, and |he must therefore find in his favour. I Judgment was given for the plaintiff t f~r the amount confessed, £355 Is sd.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19331122.2.8
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1933, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
576SOLICITOR SUED Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1933, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.