SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 122, 23 June 1909, Page 2

SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS.

AGAINST A FIRM OF SOLICITORS. MOTION TO STRIKE THEIR NAMES OFF THE ROLL. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. To-day Justice Williams heard a motion of the council of the Law Society of Otago and Southland that n rule nisi be granted by the Court calling upon Frederick Zwingle Moore and William Luther Moore, of the firm of Moore, Moore and Nichol, to answer allegations contained in an affidavit sworn by D'Arcy Haggit, solicitor, and to show cause why their names should not be struck off the roll of barristers and the roll of solicitors of the Court, or why they s'hould not be suspended from praStice as barristers and solicitors, or why such other order should not be made as the Court thought right, on the ground that matters stated in the affidavit constitute professional imisconI duet.

Haggitt's affidavit set out at length particulars as' to enquiries made, and ho submitted the following allegations: (a) That the business generally was not conducted in a manner in which a professional legal business should be conducted; (b) that none of the professional part of the business' was charged for as if it were professional business, and' that the business generally was conducted'in such a way that the charges and expenses were unnecessarily heavy; (e) that the procedure of the Court and ■the services of the Registrar, were used in an improper maimer in so-called taxations; (d) that the conduct of the solicitors in the matter of obtaining an old age pension for Mr. 'Poyntz amounts to grave misconduct on their part us officers of this honorable Court.

J. MacOregor said the proceeding!.' taken at the instance of the council of the Law Society arose out of an application for renewal of 'an old age pension which came before Mr. Hutchison, 5~.11., at Waikouaiti, the applicant being Mr. Poyntz. The Magistrate thought it necessary to institute certain enquiries as to the annuity which Mr. Poyntz had enjoyed for some years, and, as the Magistrate found that he was unable to give a very intelligible account of the matter it became necessary for Moore to appear before the Magistrate to explain, Moore did so, producing a lot of documents mid papers of various kinds, bills of coats and copies of originals of mortgages, etc. The Magistrate, after examining the material before him, came to the conclusion that Mr Poyntz and his wife were entitled to a renewal, but he thought it necessary to state _ the result of his investigations in the form of a written judgment. After very full investigation, the Society had decided to bring the matter before the Supreme Court, and the most serious charge of many alleged was that F. D. Moore had deliberately concocted a ( scheme whereby Poyntz was' deprived Of or signed away all his property and the annuity he possessed in order tliat he might become entitled to an old ago pension and evade certain insistent creditors. It was alleged that the costs charged were excessive and the documentary evidence was brought to prove that Jloore's reward for successfully en. gmeering this scheme was to be a heavy fee. • J The defence offered was a total denial of all the charges made and full explanations for nil alleged suspicious circumstances were offered, His Honor reserved his decision.