FAN TAN PROFITS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 307, 19 March 1928, Page 9

FAN TAN PROFITS

APPEAL COURT HEARS AUCKLAND CASE CLAIM ON CHINESE ESTATE Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. The Appeal Court—Sir Charles Skerrett, Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Sir, Mr. Justice MacGregor, and Mr. Justice Adams—is to-day hearing an appeal by the Public Trustee from a decision of Mr. Justice Stringer. The matter arises out of the estate of George Chee, late of Auckland, a merchant. [ The facts are: 1 Deceased was a Chinese merchant [ carrying on business in Auckland, who died in March, 1926. and of whose estate letters of administration were granted to the Public Trustee, who, finding the assets insufficient to meet the liabilities, elected to administer the estate as in bankruptcy, under Part 4 of the Administration Act, 1908. A creditor, Lowe King, lodged proof against the estate for £539 14s 6d, a. balance alleged to be due in respect of moneys held by the deceased in trust for the creditor. The proof was rejected by the Public Trustee, and a motion was brought to reverse the Public Trustee’s decision, and to admit proof. It appeared from the evidence before the judge that some years before the death of the deceased, he and the creditor Lowe King formed themselves into a syndicate or partnership for the carrying on of tlie illegal game of fan tan. The initial capital of the venture, £75, was contributed as to £SO by the creditor, and as to £25 by the deceased, and they were entitled to profits in the same proportions. The method of carrying on the game was that the partners appointed agents, who actually ran the game, and who, after deducting agency commissions, paid over the balance of the profits to deceased, who acted as the banker of the venture and kept a careful record ; of the results in the Chinese language, in special books provided for the purpose. It appeared from these books, of which a verified translation was produced, that at the time of death the share of the profits to which the creditor was entitled amounted to £539 14s 6d, which amount had apparently been blended by deceased with his own general funds. THE JUDGE’S DECISION The judge said: “It is well known that Chinese business men are, as a rule, scrupulously honest and exact in their monetary transactions, and there is no reason to suppose that if the deceased had lived he would have denied the right of the creditor to his share of the profits, or would if sued have set up the shabby and dishonourable defence that action was barred by the fact that such profits resulted from the conduct of a national game which had been made illegal by statute, but which is no more inherently immoral than many lotteries and sweeps in which great numbers of the community participate with impunity. It would, I think, be deplorable if an officer of the court should be compelled to do what the deceased Chinaman, whose estate he is administering, would had he lived have scorned to do. As the estate of the deceased has been augmented by moneys of the creditor, which _ have been mixed with and become indistinguishable from the rest of the estate, all that the court can do by way of acting honestly is to order the administrator to admit the creditor’s claim to proof, rateably with the other creditors, and proof is admitted accordingly.” . From this decision the Public trustee is now appealing. Mr. M. Myers, K.C., and Mr. Johnstone appear for the Public Trustee, and Mr. A. T. Donnelly and Mr. Tong for Lowe King.