WIFE AS CREDITOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 978, 22 May 1930, Page 6

WIFE AS CREDITOR

ROTORUA MAN’S BANKRUPTCY A fire which destroyed his store at Panmure a few months after he had purchased it was a cause advanced as contributing to his bankruptcy by Jesse Tanner, farmer, of Rotorua, who was examined before the acting-official assignee (Mr., G. "W. Browne) yesterday. Tanner’s liabilities to unsecured creditors amounted to £393 15s 6'd. His assets included book debts estimated to produce £3OO, a motor-car valued at £2OO and property valued at £3,000, making a surplus of assets of £3,207 3s 6d. Bankrupt, in his statement, said that in June, 1925, he entered into a motor and land agency business at Rotorua, in partnership with a Mr. McDermott. Previously he had been engaged in farming for some years. The partnership leased a farm for £ 3 a week from Mr. Kravis. The farm was very poor and bankrupt sold his interest for £750, including a deposit of £3OO. He estimated his loss on the farm at £I,OOO. Shortly after the sale Kravis took action against him and obtained a jiidgment in the Supreme Court at Hamilton for £lO5 and costs. Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Tanner also took action for the return of moneys alleged to have been advanced by her to bankrupt for the purchase of a motor-car and obtained judgment for £235 7s lOd. There were bankrupt’s only debts. In JLily, 1929, bankrupt put £650 into a business at Panmure but the place was burnt down in September, the total insurance being £2,780. Since then he had been out of work. In reply to Mr. Brown, Tanner said that the bill of sale he had obtained on the sale of the Rotorua property was not now in existence as the purchaser abandoned the property about 12 months later. Until the fire, he had held his own in the business, his turnover being about £SO a week. In reply to Mr. W. H. Hampson, who appeared for the creditors, bankrupt admitted having attended a number of race meetings since the fire. Mr. Hampson: Would £SO of the £278 have gone in your visits to the races? Bankrupt: I don’t think so. Tanner said that he had spent part of the insurance money in meeting the claims of creditors. Mr. McLiver, who appeared for bankrupt, explained that Tanner was separated from his wife. She had made him a gift of the property at Rotorua, included in bankrupt’s assets, but had now repudiated it.