A SECRET PROCESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 30, 28 April 1927, Page 15

A SECRET PROCESS

held to be property liable to taxation That a secret process could be classed '* s Property, and so taxed under the Sta ®P Duties Act, was the effect cf judgment delivered yesterday y Mr. Justice Stringer in the Supreme L °urt. The case concerned an action ln which the New Era Printers and Ltd.. of Auckland (Mr. J ohnaton) appealed against assessment ° duty by the Commissioner of Stamp r * Paterson) on an agree*or sale of a secret process of frintinß- - ” on °ur said that by the agree - to Offset Press, Limited, agreed the Ito John B. Hobart, as agent for 8U a PPellants, a secret process for a TiulL not less tha « £ 30.000. The CorndeflJ?°^ er heW that the process was to r\T as Property and was liable uty a » on a conveyance on sale. Wheti CaSe raised two questions, firstly ith , er a secret process was properly £u ™ the meaning of the Stamp ies Act, and secondly, whether it

was assessable if admitted to be property. "Property as defined in the Stamp Act means every description of property, or proprietary right, and every estate or interest in property whether legal or equitable, and whether corporeal or incorporeal, and includes goodwill,” His Honour said. "This is as wide and as comprehensive a definition as could well be framed and it is difficult to imagine anything capable of being bought and sold which would not come within it.. "Authorities appear to me to establish beyond question that a secret process is property within the meaning of the Stamp Duties Act. In my opinion a secret process is not a thing in action inasmuch as it is not a thing recoveiable by action, and is in the physical possession of the owner so long, at any rate as he does not disclose it. it seems to me that while he retains the secret in his brain it is as much in his physical possession as anything in his pocket. For the reason given 1 am of opinion that the commissioners assessment was correct, and I Llie appeal is, therefore, dismissed with iio costs and disbursements.