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SET ASIDE.

A MAIiRIAOK SETTLEMENT. ACTION BKOUOHT BY OFFICIAL ASSIGXKK. ■, The Wellington papers give a fuller report than has been oublished of the .judgment of the Chief Justice in the case in which the Ollicial Assignee m .the estate of James White Harding, proceeded against the latter's wife, Violet S. Harding, claiming that certain property transferred to her by her husband, in pursuance of articles' of agreement entered into between them prior to marriage, should be set aside, declared fraudulent and void, and that she should be ordered to transfer the property to the plaintiff. The questions were—(l) Whether the plaintiff had shown that there was an intention of J. W. Harding to defraud his creditors, and (2) whether the defendant was identified with such fraud.

. Harding- was in business in a large way as a farmer, stock-buyer and dealer in frozen meal. He was a widower with two children, and the evidence began j -with a visit he paid to Auckland in the j end of 1910. "lie seems to have gone to Auckland on a matrimonial mission," said His Honor. "The lady lie went to visit married, or had married, another. , This lady had been his housekeeper and had borne a child to him. There is no clear evidence as to whether she wa« married when he says he visited her in the end of 1010.' Judging by the Evidence she had already been married, and that his visit to her was after her ■marriage. If that is so, his statement that he went to ask her to marry him is incorrect." Harding met his present wife in Auckland at the end of 1910, and they were married on November 4th, 1911. His Honor remarked that the evidence given by them before the Official Assignee at Ilawera, and the evidence given in the Supreme Court did not wholly agree. Harding left in May, 1911, for Brisbane, started a business there, and Mrs. Harding accompanied him. In Brisbane he was informed that there had been a loss of i'.KWI on seven months' transact ions. As the price of frozen beef was low and the value of the beef he forwarded to England was not sufficient to repay the advances made against his shipments, he returned to New Zealand, and he was alarmed .it the position. ''lf I were to accept the statement of Mrs. Harding," said His Honor, ''he was continually asking her to marry, and after her brother arrived in Brisbane she Avas making a demand for a settlement on her of property. Now at this time she says she was led to believe he was a wealthy man. She must liave known he had an extensive business. . She discovered she was enceinte whilst she was in Brisbane, and she and h,>r husband ask the Court to believe (hat she, a young woman in that condition, living with a man she thought wealthy, !' rejected marriage unless a settlement was made on her. T cannot believe she took lij) such an attitude." NO BASIS IX SETTLEMENT.

Continuing, His Honor said that the law in cases of this kind was clear. This was not a voluntary gift; it was fiaSed on a good consideration, that of marriage. The fact even that a husband was at the time of his ante-nuptial settlement, in debt, and that his intended wife knew he "was embarrassed, was not of itself sufficient to make such a settlement, fraudulent and void. Even if there were false recitals in the deed of settlement to her knowledge Unit would not invalidate the transaction, i There must be some evidence of fruuj. and both must have concurred in Ihe fraud. His Honor was of opinion, however, that where there had been for some time illicit relations between the parties, the proving of a good consideration and the absence of fraud was beset with some difficulty. In all the eases lie could find and all those cited where there had been such a connection, the settlement was not upheld. Harding's relationship with another woman and his pretence that he was willing to marry her showed that he did not seem anxious to marry any one who was his mistress. It did not appear to His Honor, after carefully considering all the facts, that he could find that the marriage was arranged on a basis of settlement. Tn his opinion Mrs. Harding would have married Harding without any settlement, and it seemed to him that Harding would not have married her but for the fact that lie was in financial difficulty and wished (o try and save the property that should have gone to his creditors for his own purposes. The settlement did not provide for children. If Harding had ben willing to marry his wife in June the marriage would have been carried our without any settlement. JUDCMEXT FOR PLAINTIFF. Judgment was, therefore, given for the plaintiff, with costs as oil a claim for £"2000, with fee for second counsel according to scale, and for three days extra at £ls 15s a day, witnesses' expenses and disbursements and any interlocutory disbursements and costs that were reserved. The minutes cf the decree would have to be drawn up and approved.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19140213.2.62

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 193, 13 February 1914, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
869

SET ASIDE. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 193, 13 February 1914, Page 6

SET ASIDE. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 193, 13 February 1914, Page 6

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