N.Z. APPEAL DISMISSED BY PRIVY COUNCIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 1

N.Z. APPEAL DISMISSED BY PRIVY COUNCIL

JUDGMENT UPHELD By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Thursday. The New Zealand appeal case, Watson versus Haggitt and others, was to-day dismissed by the Privy Council.—A. and N.Z.-Sun. This was an appeal from the New Zealand Court of Appeal. The case was one in which the plaintiff was Mrs. Bertha Haggitt and the defendant Air. John Lachlan MacGillivray Watson. The facts of the case were that Haggitt, plaintiff’s late husband, and Watson, were in partnership as solicitors under a deed of partnership for a term of 15 years. After the expiration of this period the partners carried on the business as usual, without entering into a renewal of the deed, until the death of Haggitt determined the partnership. Watson claimed that before diving the profits between himself and his late partner’s representatives he was entitled to deduct £1,500 per year as salary. Mrs. Haggitt resisted this claim and desired a division of “net profits” before such deduction. Air. Justice Sims held that Watson was entitled to make the deduction. The case hinged round the words “net profits” in the partnership deed. The New Zealand Appeal Court allowed the appeal with costs. The defendants appealed to the Privy Council.