DOCTORS’ DISPUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 223, 9 December 1927, Page 13

DOCTORS’ DISPUTE

SALE OF A PRACTICE CLAIM FOR £2,000 DAMAGES The case in which Dr. William Arthur Alexander and his wife, Linney Alexander (M.r. Fiddes), claim £2,000 from Dr. Ernest James Millar (Mr. Richmond) for alleged misrepresentation in the sal© of the latter’s practice and house at Takapuna, was continued this morning at the Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Reed. The plaintiff paid £4,500t£1,000 for the practice and £3,500 for the house. It was alleged that the practice only averaged an income of £1,215 a year, whereas Dr. Millar had said that the average was £1,450. The house had been valued at £2,250. The estimate of the defendant was £3,500. Lengthy evidence as to the value of the land and the house and that of the practice was given. For the defendant. Mr. Richmond contended that the plaintiff’s case had gone by the board after the evidence. It was monstrous to suggest that the defendant had engineered a plan to commit fraud and then hand over all the books, from which any fourthform boy could expose the position in a few minutes, he said.

The defendant, in evidence, said that early in 1926 he had no intention of selling his practice. He was approached and made a certain estimate. When he was telephoned by Dr. Alexander the sale of the practice was not discussed.

Witness later told the plaintiff that the practice was worth £I,OOO and the house £ 3,500. He could take it ,or leave it. An agreement to purchase was arrived at and £750 was paid as a deposit, and the balance at the end of the month. The plaintiff had the free use of the surgery during that month and the details of the practice were gone into fully. Witness had never been asked for an explanation of the book*) before the allegation of fraud was made. Detailed and technical evidence of the amounts shown in the books is proceeding and is likely to occupy some time.