Court settles grave problem over hall
Dead men tell no tales - and neither are they much use when it comes to selling property.
When members of the Tariki Hall committee in rural Taranaki decided to sell their ageing building, to avoid the increasing cost of its upkeep, they found they had a major problem on their hands.
For the hall, built in 1895, could only be sold with the permission of the original trustees.
But this was somewhat difficult to obtain as they had signed the form 106 years ago - in 1911.
And as they died off over the following decades no new trustees were appointed to replace them.
So the committee, which planned to give the proceeds of the sale to charity, had no choice but to take the matter to the High Court of New Zealand.
They asked the court to appoint them as the new trustees, and the court granted the request.
Paul Fabish, Denise Loveridge, Thomas Loveridge, Andrew McElroy, Dorothy Oakes, Tania Simpson, Cindy Baldwin and Kevin Bennett were named new trustees of the Tariki Hall Trust.
It’s not the first time such a situation has arisen locally. In March, Stratford District Council (STDC) began a legal process to declare a number of small plots in Midhirst abandoned.
The 8.49 hectares of land was still in the name of Albert Cracroft Fookes, who died in 1916.
The property has racked up $4,196.92 in outstanding rates and family members were unable to be reached.
Upon approval, STDC will sell the land, with the money used to pay the late rates and the remaining balance turned over to the Public Trust, which will hold it in case Fookes’ beneficiaries could be found.