DID LUCY HENDRY STAY TO CONQUER?

NZ Truth, Issue 1197, 8 November 1928, Page 5

DID LUCY HENDRY STAY TO CONQUER?

Retired Publican Breaks With Lady Friend and Seeks To Regain Possession of House

REFUSED TO MOVE— TREATED RENT COLLECTOR AS JOKE!

- (From "N.z/ Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) ; ■:' • Whatever it may have been, something brought about a break between Andrew Beggs, retired publican, and Lucy Hendry, whose relations m the past seem to have been of the most amiable nature. Having undergone a change m his sentiments, Beggs summoned tfye lady to court with a demand for possession of his house, located m Road, Mt. Eden, claiming at the same time £85 : 10 arrears of rent from January to October, at the rate of £2: s >'.a week- Lucy^ must pack up and go. ,

FROM the outset It was obvious that there was a certain amount of acrimony seething beneath the surface. Lawyer Allan Moody, who acted for Beggs, introduced his submissions to Magistrate Hunt by ; saying that his client had purchased v the, home at Mount Eden last November, defendant being his tenant, as he put it. Beggs had allowed , her to reside there from November to January, when he had notified her that she would have to pay £2/5/- a. week for future accommodation. "She has never paid any rent at all," said the lawyer, "and on January 7, I wrote to her, but got ho reply. She has destroyed the notice-board announcing that the house is for sale." Meanwhile, Mrs. Hendry refused to leave and was still m possession. His: worship wished to know why the proceedings had been delayed. ; Counsel explained that complainant had not taken action, as he was about to dispose of a valuable property, and did riot want at the time to give the matter m question any publicity. . However, m September, defendant wag given formal notice to quit. 1 "The defendant is" actuated 'by malice and; spite," was Lawyer Moody's explanation. She had asked Beggs to come to her solicitor's office and sign an agreement to : pay her £ 6>a week. . A yoyng law clerk named Brodie was called to* give his sworn statement that a registered letter had .been posted to • Mrs. Hendry giving? her formal notice to quit. This letter had never been returned.

Shouting A Spot

Charles Bentori, a land agent^ tol4 how he had called on the lady who would not leave the ex-publican's house, asking her. for rent. ; According to his evidence, he was met with silence and a., refusal to pay. Under. cVoss-examinatidn by Lawyer Singer, this witness said he could produce no record of "his' visits, but the .woman simply refused to give him any money.

"She treated it as a joke when I asked her for money/ was the contribution of Arthur John Martin, who was employed by G. F. Bonnett, ■' «ariel -said.:. 'Not i to-day, thank you!'" . '' .. '

Andrew Beggs then Stepped his bulky frame into the witness-box. He led off by telling Lawyer . Moody, m answer to his questions, that he was the owner of the property m Sunnyslde Road and that defendant had lived there from November of last year to January, rent free. .

"I broke off relationships with her and instructed Bennett's to collect rent of £2/5/- a week; m January she was given notice to that effect." Mrs. Hendry would seem, however, to be nothingif not a sticker; notice or not, she sat pat m \Beggs' abode. The house, replied Beggs to Lawyer Singer, when under cross-examination, was worth £1400, while there was a mortgage on it of £1275 at 7 per cent. He had paid £125 cash, for it when purchasing..

"Will you leave it to me?" implored Lawyer Singer of his learned friend when. Lawyer Moody made some interjection. "I know what I'm doing."

"Mrs. Hendry was living m Wynyard Road till she went to Sunnyside?" asked the lady's lawyer. "Yes," was the reply. ' ' • ' "She had twelve months' lease?" — "Yes," admitted Beggs. ); There were. only, seven months of that lease gone?" persisted Lawyer Singer." Beggs' reply was that he was not sure. . ' "You put Mrs. Hendry into that flat m Wynyar.d Road?" came next. "No," replied Beggs, "she took it." "You bought 'the Sunnyside house because you had trouble with your wif e ?"— "No." "There was a scene with your wife at Wynyard Road and after that you bought the house at Mount Eden?" Beggs was not appreciating this line of cross-examination, but he answered: "Yes." '.'Did you not buy the Sunnyside house with a view to Mrs. Hendry living there?" — -"No. for an investment."

' Beggs went on to say that there had been' complaints from the landlord of the Wynyard Road fiats. • '

"Prior to this, Mrs. Hendry was livr ing m a house at Brentwood Avenue which belonged to you?" Lawyer Singer was evidently intent on getting out all the facts. Beggs finally told Magistrate ; Hunt that the house was his.

Pressed as to who paid "the rent of the flat, Beggs said that he did not pay it, but gave the defendant the money to do so. ; Asked if he had ever sold the Sunnyside house, he replied: "I put it up, but the lady wouldn't let anyone m."

"I put it to you," tirged Lawyer Singer, "that it would be untrue to sfcy that you sold it?" "No," was the answer, "a man was after it, but she wouldn't let him m." "Did you tell any solicitor that you'd sold it oh or about December 12?" — "I may have done so." ' , •

"Did you call on Mrs. Hendry after December 12?" — "No." "Then later?" Lawyer Sirtger was driving this point home. - ;

4 i may have called on her a day or tWo before Christmas," was Beggs* answer.

He began to show signs of loss— or cohfusioh-r-of memory, but at last said he might have called m a red-topped taxi. •

Lawyer Singer continued: "Tou were perfectly friendly with Mrs. Hen dry, then, and I suggest that you told her to take no notice of the letter?"

"Oh, no, no!" Beggs was emphatic, "I never said- anything of the kind." And he repeated this denial when the query was put again. "And," persisted Lawyer Singer, "from then up to March 26, you met this lady on three different occasions at different hotels?" This was also denied.

Later Beggs refuted the suggestion that he had met the woman at a cer- 1 tain hotel m March and taken her to buy the pair of shoes she was wearing m court. He didn't remember meeting her. ■.. ■ "..■■'■' '• . ' • • :

"From January 9r I've not met her," he added. "Unless I've met her m the street as ypu might meet 'anybody." . . ■

"Can you fix the last date you. saw; her?" asked Lawyer Singer. "Testerday," was the reply. ■ -' " "I'm not speaking of that," said counsel. ;

. Beggs agreed that he had a drink with Mrs! Hendry the day before. He observed: "If I met the lady, I'd shout her a spot." Asked if he could remember the last

DidtttKeep Diary

time he had met the defendant, Beggs replied: "I can't say. I can't tell you." Then he added: "Can you remind me?" •■■.:,

"March 29, m the Ambassador's Hotel," suggested 'the lawyer.^-"Yes, I may have." ' . Pressed to state why he would not tell, he said: "I don't keep a diary— I can't remember." :

*' ; Beggs Interrupted counsel and Lawyer Singer, grew emphatic: "Let me finish my questions!" .; But' Lawyer Moody,, who had sat silent under pressure! interjected; "She runs boozing all around the town." ;

• A moment or s6" later Beggs' lawyer again objected to 1 the line of crossexamination when Lawyer Singer asked the big man m the witness-box whether he really wanted the rent.

' "Leave me alone, Mr. Moodyl" Lawyer Singer was annoyed. . Again Lawyer Moody interrupted to say: ..."She's threatened to burn the house down." Things had gone this far when it was agreed by both parties that if Beggs would waive the matter of rent and give Mrs. Hendry a month to get otit, the case could be settled without further argument. Lawyer Moody asked for (and- obtained) solicitor's costs £3/3/- and £1/10/- witnesses'. fees.

The • parting words, of the bench were: "If she doesn't get out, one of our court bailiffs will put her out!" Mrs, Hendry, who was smartly dressed m a small black hat and neat black costume, appeared to be quite satisfied with the result. . --,'.'