UNUSUAL CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1922, Page 7

UNUSUAL CASE.

BANKRUPT AS SPHINX. WOMAN REFUSES TO MfcET JUDGMENT DEBT. “NOT AFRAID OF GAOL.’' Auckland, Dee. IS. An unusual stand was taken by a bankrupt who appeared before the Official Assignee (Mr. Fisher) to-day. The bankrupt, Gertrude Eva Gahagan, of Devonport, had expressed ‘her determination not to pay the debt owing to the petitioning creditor, and when placed on oath by the Official Assignee refused |o give direct answers and to what she had done with the sum of £5OO, which, it was alleged, she had drawn from the Post Office Savings Bank. Mrs. Gahagan was adjudicated a bankrupt on December 1 last, the petition being in regard to a debt of £57 12s arising from a judgment obtained against her last February, when she was nonsuited in a case. “NOT TWO STRAWS!” At the commencement of the meeting, tlie Assignee said that the bankrupt had filed a schedule in which she showed her assets as nil and her liabilities as nil, so that her claim was that she owed nothing, and had no assets. He had warned her specifically that if she refused to answer proper questions upon oath she rendered herself liable to imprisonment for contempt of court; hut she had assured him that she “did not care two straws whether she went to prison or not.” He had then obtained a statement from her. Questioned by Mr. Blamfid, for the petitioning creditor, bankrupt refused to eay whether she had recently withdrawn money from the Post Office. .Pressed for an answer, she said that she may have drawn money—she would not say she had not; she had to live. “THAT IS NOTHING.!” “You say, then, that recently you drew out certain moneys?” was the question put to her. “I am not going to eay anything about it.,” was her reply. Is petitioning creditor the only creditor you have at the present? You have withdrawn certain moneys to pay certain creditors recently; we have that? —Well, you say that. You don’t deny it?—l say nothing. Could you go and find that £500? Do you know who has it?—l am not going to say. Did you draw money to pay your creditors or for living expenses? —Are they not the same? But, £5OO for living expenses? —Well, that is nothing. WANTS MATTER CLEARED UP. The Official Assignee said that the point was that at this critical stage in the proceedings the bankrupt was refusing to answer question, so that they were not likelv to get. any further regarding the £5OO, and it was for the creditors to decide whether they would compel her by court proceedings. Bankrupt said she wished to have the matter cleared up right away, as she could not stand the strain of repeated appearances before the court. Mr. Fisher: Well, pay the £57 l‘2s and you can clear it up. The bankrupt: T will never pay it. I am an honorable woman, and I was disgraced in mv own home. I Mr. Fisher (despairingly) : Oh, well, i next proceedings will be a criminal proI sedition. The meeting then adjourned.