BUILDER’S BANKRUPTCY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 232, 20 December 1927, Page 12

BUILDER’S BANKRUPTCY

INJURED AND OUT OF WORK Injuries received through falling from a building and resulting periods of unemployment were given by John Grylls Jury, formerly a builder of Valley Road, as the chief reasons for his bankruptcy. He was summoned to appear yestex*day morning in the office of the official assignee, Air. G. N. Morris, to explain the circumstances of his failure. Bankrupt’s finances showed £440 owing to unsecured creditors. There In a statement Jury said that until December, 1924, he was working on wages as a carpenter, and was then practically solvent. He then took a contract to build a house and paid all costs connected with it except £l5O owing to a timber company. He lost on the job because of injuries received. so that he could neither work or properly supervise the job. As a result he had to pay large sums for labour, and suffered through waste of timber. Since then lie had been working on wages when able to work. Apart from the house contract he had done no building except a cottage on which he estimated he lost about £9O. During the past three years he had been idle for 20 months, and he and liis wife had to- pay nearly £IOO in medical expenses. The home was kept going out of money his wife had borrowed on her interest under her father’s will. Cross-examined, Jury said that he had never kept books and had no excuse for the omission. His injuries consisted of spinal trouble as the result of a fall. Asked if he did not consider himself unwise in taking on the second contract in view of the state of his health, bankrupt said he believed he would have been able to supervise the work satisfactorily. Summing up the evidence, Mr. Morris said that he was not altogether satisfied that debtor had kept faith with one creditor. He had obtained timber from the firm and had used the profits of his building operations to pay other creditors, while the timber people had been "left high and dry.” The meeting concluded after the bankrupt had promised to pay something weekly off his liabilities so long as he was able to work.